Are we nature's insurance policy?

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I was about to make a series of posts on the importance of social conformity and why life is so difficult for those such as ourselves who don't naturally conform to social norms and how that impacts our mating prospects. Why would nature make beings who have a need for companionship and to mate, but who lack the innate programming for such thing? It made no sense and I chalked it up to the imperfections of natural variation. However, then I read this...

Why teens are eating Tide Pods

And an idea arose.

Nature needs people like us because sometimes conformity can cause mass die offs, when social animals follow the leader to their demise.

We represent the lemurs who didn't jump off the cliff, the whales who didn't beach, and the people who didn't intentionally eat poison.

We are nature's insurance policy.

Please don't get upset LOL....it's LEMMINGS which jump off cliffs.

Lemurs are primates who are on the "lower" portion of the "primate spectrum."

I see what you mean, though. Conformity does frequently place even us Homo sapiens in dangerous situations

What I believe, though, is that we are inevitable mutations, variations from the "norm."

I do believe there is such thing as "too perfect." If there were no "mutations" and everybody came out "perfectly," the species wouldn't be able to adapt to any sort of adversity.

Lemmings don't even do that. It's a widely-held misconception based on a Disney film called "White Wilderness"...and it's total nonsense. Lemmings don't commit suicide en masse by hurling themselves off cliffs.

You got me there. I know you are so glad

But I do believe the "myth" has some basis because, apparently, every four years or so, the population "booms," forcing them to seek territory beyond their usual habitat. In mountainous areas, there will, inevitably, be a cliff which the lemmings can't avoid. Though it's not "purposeful" suicide, there are some who will fall off the cliff and die, owing to sheer numbers.

This happens to wilderbeests, too, in their yearly migration. Some cannot ford the river which is "in their way." As a result, they are eaten by crocodiles.

It's more a reference to buffaloes than lemmings.

Yes, lemmings, and yes they don't usually jump off cliffs. Good catch to both of you. But if we were either and they jumped off cliffs, I doubt most of us would.

I guess it depends what the individual lemming thinks about when he/she is falling down the cliff, hoping to come back to life like Wyle E. Coyote.

I actually really like Wendy’s.

So autism really is a superpower.

Sure, why not? Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Frankly, not only this.
I've been in some emergency situations where everybody panicked but I remained calm. Because I don't catch panics from others, I guess.
So, with ability to think clear, I could think of solutions. And those were the rare occasions I took the lead.
So it's not only about survivors. Sometimes an Aspie can be useful to find solutions that everybody else overlooked because of their crowd thinking and crowd feeling.

Hope in your theory. If everyone else died off when we mate with? So we’d live another 40-70 years and the species would die off.

No we are mistakes. Our genes won’t be carried over to the next generation. Aspies have existed forever cause we are random mutations. Two nts will have aspie, who’ll live sad lonely life and die without having kids. Most aspies didn’t make more aspies. Natures insurance policy is over population. There’s never been a 100 death rate, or we wouldn’t be here, we loses 10-30% of the population the rest reproduce and increase population. If there was a virus that killed 4 billion There’d still be billionsnoeft and in few centuries they’d be 10billion, over population is the inrusnce plan. There’s no grand scheme to us aspies were just mistakes in dna. Random chances nothing more.