Is Asperger's Evolution in Process?

Post Reply New Topic

If it is genetic (it probably is), then it is a mutation. Mutations are part of evolution, but that does not make them invariably beneficial. Sexual reproduction is a very important (the most important factor, I would say) in evolution, and a quick look at the Love and Dating forum will show you that many people in the spectrum will probably never have children. Therefore, the mutation will most likely die with the "mutants".

But it has a tendency to appear even when the parents do not have it. Who knows? Maybe our numbers will increase exponentially and we will become like pandas: a species with no drive for reproduction.

People diagnosed with ASD are not a homogenous group, they just share some similar symptoms. Many hereditary factors can cause ASD-like qualities such as social withdrawal and obsession, including people who are hypersystemizers, people with immune problems, people with insulin problems, etc. Clearly, scientists, engineers and mathematicians have autistic traits such as introversion and sometimes narrow interest (but highly academic), but so do people with OCD, social anxiety, certain autoimmune disorder sufferers, etc. Screwing with someone's insulin sensitivity also causes people to behave more autistic. (people with diabetes tend to become more socially withdrawn after onset)

The point is that not everyone with ASD is hyperlogical, or even remotely capable of math or science. Some are in fact quite the opposite, clearly. A hypothetical scenario: Take these two extremes, a person with ASD who is the offspring of an engineer who is good at numbers, and the ASD offspring of a person with an autoimmune disorder who is obsessed with the weekly weather. I suspect there is a huge genetic difference between the two.

i think it's entirely possible that AS spectrumites may evolve/are evolving into an NT-symbiotic life form.

as far as our genetic viability goes, we don't appear to be dying off, so there must be some pro-adaptive quality to our mutation.

as far being the next step in evolution, no, i don't see that. but the dispositions that accompany NT humans, including those that foster social cohesion and fluency, are not entirely adaptive. NT society has a lot of obvious, self-destructive tendencies. i believe they need us as much as we need them. hopefully we will both survive long enough to transcend the current status-quo.

If autism is not a disease, what could it be except an evolutionary adaptation? Each and every organism is one of nature's experiments - an attempted evolutionary adaptation, and some adaptations are more effective than others. Furthermore the adaptation that began at conception continues to develop after birth. The organism itself always plays a role in the evolutionary process. Random-mutation-and-natural-selection may play a minor role in biological evolution, but biological systems are not random and the complexity achieved is no accident.
Berthajane Vandegrift
http://30145.myauthorsite.com/

I sometimes wonder if it's the opposite. An evolutionary throwback to a time when social clusters were much smaller than they are now and it was less likely to produce an autistic spectrum person.

Maybe we are the last remnants of our anti-social ape past. We definitely aren't the future.

Frankly, after bouncing across the southwestern u.s. and encountering every two-legged predator in my worst nightmares, i think having Asperger's is a little like being a gazelle thrown out in a field with your legs hobbled and a big "eat me" sign pasted on your back.

Yes it is evolution in progress, our brain is much more sensitive at birth, because of this extra sensitivity, we can (if nurtured) have bigger brains.