A Hypothesis as to the Evolution of Asperger's Syndrome

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I have not put extensive thought into this hypothesis, but I feel that it is potentially quite valid.

Has anyone read anything about Kanzi the bonobo?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanzi

I don't think it is an extreme stretch of the imagination to see Kanzi as an Aspergean bonobo. Sure, he understands sociality today, but so do many adult Aspergean humans. And his learning of language is remarkable, savant-like (especially for a non-human). He knows 3000 spoken English words; that's amazing!

So, 3000 words isn't so much after all, is it? Well, we have to take into account that Kanzi is doing something that no human, ever, has completely done. Kanzi has learned the language and many of the social niceties of an entirely different species. He's learned a language that few, if any, humans have learned (well, barring the researchers, of course): His lexigrams.

He's doing things that are unnatural to his species. He learns language, his mother struggles to learn ten words. His vocabulary, thus, is infinitely greater than most bonobos, as most bonobos don't have a vocabulary.

He did not evolve to understand language the way he does. He evolved to be a bonobo. Something must have changed him, made him different than the others. Asperger's syndrome?

If this is the case, or if he is HFA, then this lets us travel a different path of thought. If he learned language because of or with assistance from Asperger's or autistic-savant-like abilities, then maybe so did we. In fact, I've read that humans have these savant-skills as infants (for learning language and other concepts).

Perhaps human language, culture, knowledge, and everything we take for granted is a result of mutations in the distant past that resulted in Aspergean-like apes. It could be that Aspergean syndrome is a throwback to an ancient mutation that was useful enough to become the norm in a certain group of apes. These Aspergean apes had some of the great abilities that some Aspergean humans have, though not to the same scale at all, of course (what with them being a couple million years in the past).

Over time, we kept evolving, and we no longer needed Aspergean syndrome. We'd already set language deep into our species, we wouldn't lose it just because we lost Aspergean syndrome. The pendulum swang back, and neurotypicality (as we know it) became the new norm. For a time, perhaps the non-Aspergean apes were even treated somewhat like Aspergean humans are today.

How prevalent is the occurrence of synaesthesia in Aspergeans?

A friend of mine pointed out that what I wrote could be misconstrued as an insult to people in the autistic spectrum. I assure you, this was not the motivation for my post, at all.

I am not suggesting that Aspergeans are in any way "lesser" beings than neurotypicals. I am merely suggesting that Asperger's syndrome may lie at the root of human language and perhaps consciousness as we know it.

Indeed, perhaps neurotypical consciousness stems from Aspergean consciousness. Perhaps if we had not evolved an Aspergean consciousness we could never have evolved the neurotypical consciousness.

And, perhaps, Asperger's syndrome could be shifting back into the norm, rather slowly. Perhaps individuals with mild to moderate symptoms from Asperger's syndrome (meaning they weren't debilitated by it) are more suitable for parts of our modern society. But that, at best, is wild speculation.

And, for the record, I maintain that humans are animals, and, specifically, apes.

I dunno. It seems that you've really extrapolated a lot from the concept of a Bonobo with AS, which is a pretty large leap to make in the first place.

2/10

Sorry, I'm confused?

out of a possible score of 10, this scored a 2. imho.

Actually, it IS based on a string of false conclusions. At least MOST animals have a language. Just because WE can't figure it out doesn't mean it isn't there.

3000 words IS good, but is VERY poor if you consider lack of structure. The average human probably learns at LEAST 3 times that WITH structure!

Steve

I don't know if I'd go that far, but there is probably considerably more nuance to their communication than we are aware, and I have no doubt there are at least some languages out there.



Yeah, but there's a lot you can cram into 3000 words.

Kanzi is interesting because his species seems a lot better at learning alien species behavior than common chimps are. There might be a parallel here, because of how gender-relations are similiar between Aspies and bonobos and NTs and chimps. I wouldn't make any more of it, because IMHO, Asperger's syndrome is a human construction that cannot be manifested in any other species. It simply becomes meaningless in other species.

Folks, I did state that it was a hypothesis, not a theory. I just threw it out there for fun.

I did also say that it was wild speculation. That doesn't mean it isn't fun or interesting.

I know. That's why I'm not claiming it's truth. I know that it likely isn't. I just found it an interesting scenario.



This depends on how you define language. Yes, most mammals have forms of communication, but not language. I would define language as the ability to transmit ideas beyond the level of pure emotions or pure survival needs. Kanzi can do that. His mother can't.



Humans know far more than 9000 words, friend. Some estimates have put it as high as 50000 word families. One family meaning words like truth and truthful are in the same group.



How do you know what Asperger's is or isn't? We can't rule out the possibility that the closest species to us in the world, the bonobo, can have some of the mental problems we can have. Their minds are not far seperated from us. 99.4% of our genes are the same. Are we to assume that Asperger's is found only in the 0.6% difference between us?

In any case, I was merely throwing an idea out there to play with. I just wanted to have a bit of fun. Not necessarily believe the hypothesis, but revel in its absurdity.

Can no one else enjoy wild speculation for the sake of wild speculation?

I WAS being CONSERVATIVE! Can you say CON-SERV-A-TIVE? I knew you could!

YEAH, I wasn't counting things like conjugations. That IS part of structure though! If you remove conjugations, I doubt the average person knows 50,000 words. Keep in mind I mean AVERAGE! As for me? I probably know upwards of 2000 words in 5 languages(I have actually memorized lists of about that many, so I know 2000 is conservative), a fair number in some others, and I'm certainly no slouch with English(I can understand perhaps any mechanical, electronic, computer jargon you can throw at me, most medical stuff, etc.... ). I could not even PRETEND to fathom how many words I know in english. As for the AVERAGE?

Let's go with richard M spears estimate at richmond virginia university! His estimate is in line with what I recall earlier estimates being!



Other estimates are 20-35K The ONLY estimate as high as yours used a MORONIC small sample method!

http://unauthorised.org/anthropology/an ... /0436.html

AGAIN, we are talking AVERAGE. Who really knows how many words the most eloquent speaker and prodigious writer knows?

BTW the term friend in this context IS rather condescending!

BTW If I took his little quiz, I could possiblly appear to have a vocabulary of over 600,000! Could I then get in the Guiness BWR???? ESPECIALLY since most of the 10,000 words I know I know or am studying are somewhat unique and fit into several language groups that english borrowed words from. HECK, I ALREADY surprised one hindi coworker by telling them about how witwe means the same in Hindi and German. The pronounciation is a little different, but that is it. And THUG means about the same in Hindi and English! And Zeitgeist means the same in German and English. WOW!! !! Where do I sign up? HEY, maybe we should ALL try for the record? NAW, I'm just kidding. I'd rather work on other things.

Steve

It's part of my theory

Asperger is various behaviors from another species. Therefore, it is meaningless to apply it to other primate species, because the problems are tied to neurotypical's social preferences. To neurotypicals, EVERY species is disordered, but if they see a particular individual is not human-like, they will simply classify it as an inferior animal instead of an disordered human if they cannot communicate.



We don't have any mental problems. We are a small minority in an alien species.



It depends on who you ask. Some studies have found a differences of several percent.



I don't find such speculations very funny, especially not after reading all the wacky hypothesises of "professionals".