If AS/Autistic people were in the majority...

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What do you think the world would be like? I guess the world as it is now is generally more suited to NTs purely because they're in the majority. But I guess the AS/autistic world would be quite different.

There would be a Forum just like this dedicated to NT people.

Complaining about how they couldn't get dates, wondering why everyone thought there was something wrong with them when they tried to make eye contact, trying to figure out how they're so insensitive to everything that they have absolutely no sense of smell or hearing or...

This made me smile. It's completely true, though.

I suppose Nts wouls have just as many struggles as we do if it was all switched around.

I think that in general just about everything would be different. Education, workplaces, the way work was done, law, business and money would all be at least slightly different. And communication would be different!

Perhaps it would be a more logical world without all of these social games.

lol! Too true.

Yeah, I'm constantly perplexed by the social playground and the nature of humans.

This idea is brought up quite frequently. There's a lot of really idealistic views of what it would be like. Personally, I think they're all misplaced.

I don't think it would anywhere near as rosy as many think it would be. All you have to do is stick around this forum and read a LOT, and you'll get a pretty good idea why I feel this way.

Autism IS a disability. A disability defined by impairment of communicative and social skills. Fill the world with people who can't communicate well, don't care for socializing, and what you really think will happen?

Frankly, as a group, we are not equipped to run things. If we were in the majority, we AND NT's would all be screwed.

More people would be getting hurt feelings and saying how mean lot of people are because of honesty and no white lies or sugar coating. But at least people would learn to not ask questions fearing they might hear something they wouldn't want to hear and some would be prepared to hear something they don't want to hear before asking for opinions.

More people would be boring each other out with their topics.

Maybe lot more people be walking up to each other and just say "Hi I am (insert name here) and I am interested in you. I think you are really hot and nice looking and I would like to take you out on a date. Do you want to go with me?" because that be more acceptable and less creepy and it be a less struggle to ask someone out. None of that social rule crap about dating. If the person isn't interested, they would go "No thank you" than coming up with some fake excuse for why they can't go out. If they were asked why they can't go out, they might say they aren't interested in them. If they are asked why again they might say they aren't attracted to them and they don't think they are cute or hot. Maybe some aspies would say more than that like "I think you're ugly" than saying they don't think they are attractive or hot. Maybe they will say that before even asked why they aren't interested in them.

Maybe there will be less misunderstandings because there be no double meanings. Maybe everyone be using words in dictionary definitions so there be less slangs and less sarcasm and less phrases. There would probably still be semantics since everyone has their own perception and views of things about word meanings.


Think of the movie "The Invention of Lying" life be more like that except I doubt lot of people be saying things like "Out of the way fatty" or calling other people names like fa***t or douchebag. I don't see how that is being honest there. To me that is just name calling and bullying. I doubt lot of aspies do that. I was taught to say as a child, "excuse me" and that was it if someone is in your way. Also I doubt lot of people be telling others about their personal lives like "Oh I was just in my bedroom masturbating" because I doubt aspies be that honest. I sure wouldn't be comfortable sharing that information about myself. How many other aspies wouldn't feel that way? But in that movie I don't think even fiction existed so I can't imagine a world without fictional books. But I bet there still be fiction written in the aspie world. Aspies write fanfiction or fiction stories all the time. But I bet people would still be getting butthurt what is being said to them vs in the movie everyone seemed so thick skinned and emotional less like they had no feelings when they be called names or be told things that were negative about themselves. I bet more people be getting punched for insulting someone because they said something to them that offended them. I don't think it still be the world where you can say whatever you want and not get punched or have their drink thrown on you or anything else. But it was a movie anyway and I felt it was exaggerated and it was meant to be funny. It would be nice to say whatever you want and if everyone had a thick skin and didn't care what was said to them.

.... technology wouldn't be held back by vocal popularity.

There would be far less hate and discord in this world if AS / Autism were the norm. It would certainly be a nicer place to live... quieter too with thought replacing arrogance, egotism and noise.

I have actually lived in a place where autistic people or at least people in the broader autistic phenotype were the majority. I lived there for four years, and it was WONDERFUL.

There was only one social convention: Don't do anything to screw over others. Don't do it intentionally, and try your best not to do it unintentionally.

Other than that, each person was free to be an individual, no matter how bizarre any appeared to any other.

I was gonna say the same thing! I agree!! It would be a more friendly, accepting place where u barely get judged which is the kind of world I want! I want it to be like this website!

I have to agree; if autism were the majority, NTs would probably be in trouble because society would be structured for autistics rather than NTs. In a world like that, the mismatch between ability and society would make being NT a disability, while autism would not be. Just reinforces the social model of disability again: Disability is what happens when what you can do and what the world expects of the average person don't match up. It's dependent on environment, not truly intrinsic to the person.

The Autistic DSM would classify them as: A pervasive verbal developmental disorder.

I'm sure it wouldn't be a perfect world, but I think it would certainly be an easier place for people with ASD to live in. Maybe I wouldn't be so uncomfortable with leaving the house if the outside world were more friendly.

I'm quite certain there would be less violence, a better educational system, and more emphasis on art and technology. Everything would be much more logical and orderly and certain problems would no longer be an issue.

Other problems might arise from stuff like executive dysfunction and communication troubles. But then again, maybe the world would be restructured enough so that those issues would be less of a problem.

It's an interesting question to ponder, though! Has anyone tried writing a book or novel about it?

I personally think that the world, or at least part of it, would collapse if the ratio of AS:NT was reversed.
However, I think the world would be nearly optimum if the ratio was somewhere around 50:50.

I think an autistic world would run just fine, and those of us on the spectrum would probably like it better, but it wouldn't be better overall - just favour different people.

After all, autistics are certainly capable of being just as mean to NTs as NTs have been to us.

I also think the categories would shift. Some autistics would be labeled with mental disabilities, just as some non-autistics are, and those wouldn't be treated as a natural result of autism. On the other hand, non-autistics who in our world would be called mentally disabled (eg people with Williams Syndrome) would be lumped in with the rest of the 'people afflicted by allism'. Our world's NTs would probably be their 'high functioning allism'.

I also wonder how much difference environment could make. Under the right conditions (severe deprivation from infancy) an NT can function as if they were low functioning autistic. I wonder if some LFAs raised in an autistic society would turn out high functioning? What if they're missing out on some environmental thing they need, that we don't know about but an autistic society would?