Do Aspies Run The World?

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I was just going to post 'All I can think about is the pinky and the brain theme song.'
Creepy. I think I read your mind... or you read mine or something.

Even weirder is that I had the theme tune in my head too.

This must be part of some kind of plot... To take over the world!

*cue theme tune*

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJPFSNu_QNs[/youtube]

this has just considerably cheered me up.

Glad to be of service! *tips hat*

OK. This is bad. I only remember the first few words of the theme and it keeps going over and over in my head.

All part of the plot

I am a Jewish Aspie. Fear me for I truly run the world!

Nah, I don't think Aspies control the world, but I do think a disproportionate number of them make significant contributions and I think it owes to our inherent inability to conform. If were not aware of social norms, how can we comply with them? And if normal ways of thinking are factored into them, then we're an entire group that thinks outside of the box -- whether or not we choose to.

I think the world is a better place for having Aspies in it, but I don't think any one group can be said to run the world.

I doubt it. We tend not to be charismatic enough for politics, but it may be that a lot of us play important roles behind the scenes.

This.

This thread is intended to make us feel better about ourselves and encourage self-advocacy.

When I say "run the world" it was intended to be tongue-in-cheek. I'm just saying we should be proud of our differences, and we matter!

Pretty much every inventor, scientist, and innovator you can think of, Einstein, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Isaac Asimov, Mozart, displayed signs of HFA. It is indeed safe to say that it's *possible* that virtually all of the technology we use came from Aspergian brains. It's not "worthless anecdotal evidence."

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Check out my IMDB page!

Sorry for being literal

I don't need to build false perceptions of reality to feel better.


[quotes]
Pretty much every inventor, scientist, and innovator you can think of, Einstein, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Isaac Asimov, Mozart, displayed signs of HFA. It is indeed safe to say that it's *possible* that virtually all of the technology we use came from Aspergian brains. It's not "worthless anecdotal evidence."
[/quotes]

Where is your evidence? In your list, only Zuckerberg and Gates are alive and available for scientific scrutiny. All the others are limited to third party descriptions of their behaviors. This is worse than anecdotal. It is hearsay.

The irony here is that you hold up as examples of aspie greatness icons of lucid thinking and innovation using an argument devoid of lucidity and innovation.

Don't get me wrong. There are things about my autistic perceptions and processing that I would not abandon if accepting cure required it. But that in no way forces me to accept ridiculous assertions of no material value.

Ok, but I don't think that's best served by indulging in wishful thinking and deriving some sort of enhanced status from arbitrary third-hand opinion.

I am and we do. Fantasy lists not required.

Well if you look closely enough and with a sufficiently narrowed focus, I guess everyone does to some degree - but aside from two on this list it's not possible to observe anything at all: they're dead.

It's also possible to raise many other things as 'evidence' for one thing or another - and that's fundamentally unsound when it's incapable of verification, but much worse when presented as 'fact' because it becomes a distortion.

We can be certain that if Aspies did run the world it would be a better place. It would be run by logic and ethics instead of greed.

And much more quietly.

Agreed.

Actually, your claim is the epitome of anecdotal evidence.


from wiki:





Since there is no scientific study to either prove or disprove your claims, I will counter your argument with my own personal anecdotes on the matter.

I say this as someone who has spent a decade in scientific research.

It is a total myth that scientific labs are inhabited by introverted, socially awkward AS-like individuals. We are a minority there just like everywhere else in the world.

In my career, I have met quite a few extremely brilliant people (with IQs that were off the charts) who used their talents to make world-changing breakthroughs.

They are geniuses in every sense of the word, with none of the various social and mental deficits that I have.

The common assumption that most or even many scientists have poor social skills is an assumption made by those who get all their information from popular media stereotypes. It is sad to see that ignorant myth constantly repeated on this forum.

The few AS-like individuals I have encountered in my career while good (but not extraordinarily great) at their work, were marginalized to the periphery of their departments just as they are marginalized elsewhere in life.

I would say that the progress of science would carry on fine without us.

Last edited by Molecular_Biologist on 23 Feb 2011, 8:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.