An Aspie world

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How do you think the world would look like if Asperger's was the new neurotypical with most people showing the typical Aspie traits while those who were known as neurotypical become a neurodivergent minority. Do you think the Aspies would end up treating them as they were treated (menial jobs, being directed towards only a specific job field, disability pay, etc.) or do you think that Aspies would treat them on an equal level even though the formerly NT would have a hard time in an Aspie world?

It depends on the individual Aspies. It depends on the individual NT's.

Great idea for a eutopian/utopian/dystopian novel.

Well for one, I don't think we would have countries in the sense that we do now, or rigid social structures in general, without good reason. It would almost have to function on a sense of altruism and the passionate pursuit special interests I think, so certain necessary jobs would be harder to fill.

Such a world would probably be more advanced technologically speaking but perhaps less so culturally. While there are plenty of aspies with great creative talent, I don't see how common "cultural anchors" if you will could be shared in they way they are in our world, as we tend to be a little narrow in our interests.

I'd actually be quite interested in reading or even attempting to write a science fiction book about something like this...

I have been in special ed school with aspie and autie classmates my whole life. The predominantly autistic population is not that much different in how they treat each other.

The strong still picks on the weak. The less impaired look down on the more impaired, the less different look down on the more different. The more impaired and different despise the less impaired and different etc.

I think unless you have a population where everyone is 100% identical, there is always going to be contention. The haves and have-nots, the alpha and beta types, the top dog and the under dog, the majority and minority.

Can I say how much I value your posts, Ezra? You provide a much needed perspective on a lot of topics. It could be so easy for people who sort of manage in the world without a lot of supports to completely dominate the discussion here on WP. Self-reference is so difficult to get around, we all depend a lot on the people with different life experiences to speak up.

How on earth did you get so mature so fast? I was pretty clueless at 15, like most people.

One thing that perhaps changes a bit with time is that the older people get, the more of them realize that we are all dependent on one another, for example in the wake of a personal crisis. In particular, people who are themselves very average and intolerant of differences end up having kids who are weird in some way, and then they have to adjust their thinking or end up with a seriously messed up kid.

There are times when I've thought that the Pokemon games were set in some sort of Asperger's world, with Pokemon being everyone's special interest. I mean, Pokemon is all anyone in those games talk about.

I don't think it works. Fighting monsters is just their cultural fixation, so much so it'd be virtually invisible in their society. Someone from Pokemon-land, looking at our world, could equally argue that getting rich and famous is our special interest and therefore everybody in this world is autistic.

I've heard that socialising is actually enjoyable at autistic-run events like AutRetreat, and that NTs get to feel alienated for that. An Aspie world would probably be a planet-sized version of that.

What worries me about an aspie world is that aspies are actually quite different from each other.

I'm pretty extrovert, and I'm scared of introverts, because, if people don't tell me what they are thinking, how the hell would I know? I do not have powers of divination.

Well I have to shoot myself down a little here. I have to admit that I do have it better socially in my private autism school than I would in a mainstream "NT" school. It is not Shangri-La by any means, but it is a safer environment for me.

@underwater, thank you so much. I think more mature teens tend to spend time on forums rather than stuff like tumblr. The kids in debate sections in teen forums seem a lot smarter and mature than me, because I sure can not keep up with them in most of their debates.

Maybe Ezra would write a book about his experiences!

Maybe accompany that book with videos?

Perhaps he could make some bucks out of this!

I'd read it. He's got a lot of interesting things to say while at the same time keeping everything concise.

I'd imagine that an NT in an all-aspie world would take some kind of leadership position. They tend to have better ability to multitask, more flexibility, and better social skills. They wouldn't feel as though they fit in at first though so may never realize their skills.

Sometimes I think queen bees are NT and worker bees are aspies.

Sometimes I think NTs are good figure head schmoozers and Aspies are good at actually making things happen.

I kind of think those characteristics would come into play in an Aspie world, when I try to imagine it, and in my mind it makes the NTs sort of a clown-like caritcature of a "real" (Aspie) person.

Just my own brief thoughts about this.

First off, I would love to read that book.

More to the point, people on the autism spectrum are as diverse as neurotypicals. In a predominately NT world, NTs are stratified in such a way that some people get better jobs and some people are bullied and discriminated against. It would be the same if it was a predominately ASD world, I think. Only I hope we'd be more able to see what people were good at and have them working to their strengths. Because that is better for everybody.

Autistics as a majority over NTs?

NT ruling minority. definitely. Assuming those 2 disorders and awareness is the same as real life.

A lot of aspies have difficulties blending in and while they won't be laughed at probably, they would not be able to take care of themselves not to mention run a country. So, the HF aspies and NTs have to take the wheel.

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Kinda what I was thinking. "In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king".

I disagree. I suspect NTs would have difficulties socializing in an aspie world in the same way that we have issues socializing in theirs. Keeping in mind that the vast majority of people on this hypothetical world are somewhere on the spectrum, it would stand to reason that the idea of Asperger's as a disorder would not exist in the way it does here, it would be considered a normal part of human psychology. On the flipside, NT-ism would come across as "overly concerned with others", "inability to be happy in isolation", and "tending to read far more into social interaction than is really there". At an extreme, that last one might actually induce paranoia as a comorbidity in such a setting...

We would still be cave men living in the Stone Age. Innovation is the result of collaboration and trade. Aspies don't collaborate well with others and not valuing social interaction would trade less and innovate less. Many lone geniuses working in isolation could never produce the system we have today. Talking to other people and building off of their ideas is what makes the impossible possible.