The Aspie Interbrain

Post Reply New Topic

I found the notion of the interbrain in these forums. It's along the lines of communal conscious, where subconscious information is transmitted between people, kind of like the internet, to make a certain layer of our brain that is shared.

I think Aspies are on a separate interbrain. How many people have come onto these forums and found stories or perspectives that have looked like a copy and paste out of their own heads or lives?

I have been keeping a diary where I describe something happening in my life, come here and find someone has articulated it slightly better for me, or occasionally, the same. Even the stranger thoughts and experiences I have, I find on here written in considerable detail. That doesn't mean I can relate to every thought or experience expressed here, but there is a lot I can relate to.

Most other people (NTs) appear to have the same thing. They can all understand each others perspectives and experiences with a great deal of clarity and make the assumption that we have their same perspectives. I wonder what it would be like if a group of us got one NT and surrounded them, say like in a work place. Then made them feel like the abhorrent one for not understanding stuff we all took for granted that was dead obvious to us. Accused them of being a bad communicator, stupid and ignorant etc, etc, etc. Started to interpret their behavior in a way that was convenient for us? Started trying to alter their behavior relative to our assumptions that do not apply to them? How would they behave to try to protect themselves? How abhorrent an inappropriate would their defensive and responsive behavior look to us? How would they turn out? How long would they last psychologically? What sort of problems would they develop?

I think they would wind up like we all so often wind up when surrounded by them. The only difference being that we would not do to them the sorts of things they have done to us. I know the whole situation is rather unlikely, I am just trying to express the opposite perspective so it may be evaluated in a balanced way.

I think our greatest problem is one of number ratio. Amongst each other we are all different but fairly normal to our own standard. Often we understand each other and experience things in a very similar way. Many of our problems are caused by being a localised minority and not on the interbrain of the majority.

I feel very different amongst them, but not so different amongst us.

Last edited by azulene on 31 Aug 2009, 8:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

I read somewhere that Aspies are also noted for the differences from one another rather than their similarites. However, I find in this site that a lot of other people have the same problems and the same way of understanding things. I think that the fact that all of us struggle with this makes us sympathetic to our fellow Aspies and it comes as something of a relief for people to share your pain. Does this make any sense? We have the same kind of problems as normal people but we go through them differently. What does NT stand for?

I have spent a lot of time around normal people and it is quite obvious from observation that no one is a good communicator (though a few are better than most). When you consider the 50%+ divorce rate and the going cost for sexual harassment, interpersonal communication seminars, consultants for conflict management in businesses...

Those wouldn't be necessary if people were good communicators.

Though they can seem like they are, and their mistakes are usually less obvious then mine. They are in general, not better at communication.

There is no communal consciousness. There are just some people better at guessing than other people.

Yes, we can be very different, but we therefore respect our differences, and in that way we are similar. We don't try to forcibly or subtly socially conformalize anyone, unlike the rest of society.

Do you really think this website is about people sympathizing about their problems? Sharing their pain? Really? Sounds like the assessment of someone who is not really on the AS scale. People who are on the scale come here and can finally talk about all the stuff that has been essentially impossible to talk about with people who don't have the condition. There may be stuff that can be considered "common problems" here, but someone on the AS scale takes something very different from here than someone not on the scale.

I think this website is mainly about certain people trying to work out how to deal with and understand the majority of society. For some reason Aspies just don't have certain functions that most people take for granted to the point most people cannot comprehend what it is like not having them. It's an information, ideas and skills exchange focused on sharing of perspectives of people with the condition seeking working solutions for problems rather than a shoulder to cry on (though it does happen here, and everywhere else I'm sure).

Majority people must think we are idiots for talking about the most simple accepted assumed stuff they take so very much for granted, and then continue with the assumption that we already know this stuff, so we are not really talking about the things we are talking about and just using our words as a carrier of an underlying subconscious need for something else. That's how majority people work, not how we work.

Ouch. I'd say something coolly indifferent but that really did hurt me. Someone who is not on the scale, huh? I'm the only one IRL who knows I'm like this, that I think I have AS, so for a year I've been pretty much struggling to teach myself these things.

I suppose I wasn't clear with the last post. What I meant was something along the lines of:
Aspies and normal people can have the same kinds of problems, like friendship and family for example, but Aspies have different reasons for having those problems and different feelings about those problems. If I thought that this was just a place where people can say their problems and have people feel sorry for them then any other forum would do. I'm sorry that it sounded the way it did and it may have been that way because I only joined yesterday and I'm still adjusting to speaking with people who are like me and some of my personal feelings may have spilled out when I was typing. I'm sorry. I don't know if I'm getting my point across but I'm sorry if I sounded offensive.

I apologise. I didn't mean my reply to be quite so blunt. I didn't mean to hurt you.

Don't stop yourself from letting your feelings out, or feeling you can talk freely here, due to an idiot like myself. You didn't say anything offensive, I understood it badly. I didn't take into consideration how long (or your age - I am so sorry) you have been here. It was an exercise in idioticy on my part.

The way I understood what you were saying was that the disorder does not really exist and this place is about sympathy. Lots of people have told me this and it's a bit of a worn nerve. But how were you to know this?

Not your fault, clearly my fault, and people do not normally act this badly here.

Again, I sincerely apologize. People are not normally so temperamental here, I do not want you to feel at all unwelcome here or feel like you cannot freely express yourself here.

I understand what you mean, and regardless of the misunderstanding, you had good reasons. As a person with AS, it sucks to see people not take it as seriously even when they know what it's about. It's a kind of anger that I feel often, though not for that precise reason (as I said, I'm the only one who knows about AS where am). I accept your apology. Neither of us were in the wrong because what you wrote about people with AS is true and I wholeheartedly agree. At least now I know a bit better how to express more clearly what I mean

See Meme.

ruveyn