Autistic brains study....

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Yes, that part kind of jumped at me, too.

From my own experience, it seems I'm ahead of the game socially, that I'm doing and saying complicated things others can't understand or don't make the effort to understand. Actually, I've had some success making a conscious effort to downshift and keep it simpler. There's also an emotional component because if I seem to care less, and not just by faking it, but by really caring less, things seem to go better. That is, there seems to be an inverse relationship! Of course, there's also a large component of luck.

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Okay, I've read that people on the spectrum tend to have an earlier adolescent (although I did not) and thus might be more physically mature at any given age, and thus if you compare the brains of two six-year-olds for example, one on the spectrum and one not, then on average . . . well, you see what I'm saying.

I have also read that most neurotransmitters are inhibitory. That a condition like epilepsy is too many neurons firing at once.

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And I do wish this ABC News article had included a quote by someone saying something like:
People on the Autism Spectrum have a lot to contribute, if only we could broaden the definition of what constitutes 'normal.'

Generally I see autism as a case of yourself needing to rearrange the pieces, which is great! No automatic programming and the sky's the limit! as long as you actually distrust the bigotry and shallow political squabbles of other people and start actually doing things.


Which might explain why some high functioning autistic children practice when they're prompted and don't randomly scream and p*ss off everyone. Then again they may be tense because of the environment.


Yet they don't actually know which neurotransmitters these extra neurones use and I am willing to gauge that it's a case of half and half. If it isn't well inhibitory neurones aren't necessarily the cause of slower brain power, but of unwanted transmissions, which given some of the things NTs do without prompt I am quite happy for.
According to Temple Grandin the front of our brain is disconnected from our amygdala, the part dealing with emotions disconnected with the part dealing with

A hundred years ago one of the most freedom-loving nations on the earth was steeped in racial hatred. Standard Humans have seemed compliant with bigotry, and that was only skin colour. It resides in the issue of serving what they perceive as their own interests.

To them we present a new issue, a people defined by an inimical difference in mind not irrelevant characteristics of skin colour and minor aesthetics, and they have managed to fudge up the whole thing by shoving us in a junk taxon.

And people accepted the most glib, facile reasons to justify slavery. And it wasn't really about intellect at all. It was about coming up with or hearing a reason that let them feel better emotionally.

And desegregating schools, well, in the 50s, 60s, 70s, it took decades, literally. And still incomplete, for black kids are more often funneled into 'special ed' (which all too often isn't helpful and is merely a holding place).

And the struggle for gay rights is also still incomplete, but has made great strides. Now, that one faces some direct religious opposition, as did equality for black persons.

So, on the face of it, political activism for fair and equal treatment of persons on the Asperger's / Autism Spectrum will have an easier go of it. In addition, people are generally accepting of the idea that some people are detailed-oriented people and some people aren't, and that some people are more left-brain thinkers and other people more right-brain thinkers, and it's all good. In addition, there is kind of a movement for nerd liberation. But still, we will likely experience both unexpected setbacks and other occasions when it's easier than we expect to achieve a goal. So, I think it's important to run multiple tracks and accept victories where we get them.

I think your reaction in this last paragraph doesn't fit with the truth you make at the start. Homosexuality, skin colour, eye shape. These are pennies in the pot of evolution. We on the other hand from a human perspective have a brain that works radically different. Many of them will never come to terms with that practically and certainly emotionally. THey are narrow-minded about their own superiority, forcing everything to automorph to their specifications, even if it means people who are not like them and who can look down on quite a few of them, whilst also looking up at them haughtily doing nothing to save those able of us from ignorance.

That will often be true. For example, someone might not want to admit that the hiring criteria for a certain job is unfair to some extent (or, at least limited) because they don't want to acknowledge that there was anything unfair about them getting the job.

But this won't always be true, and as long as we can avoid investing too much emotionally, and time-wise, etc, I think it's often worth trying. And I think it would help if we had groups pushing for what are essentially civil rights for those of us on the spectrum.

For example, some entrepreneurs openly say that their success was due both to hard work and some luck along the way (80% of new business attempts fail). So not everyone takes the hard view that it's all their own effort and no one else can come in the gate after them.

One thing, if more of our institutions were multi-path rather than single-path, I think that would make a huge difference. Take university admissions. They say, oh, no, we look at the whole student, at the totality of the student. What they're really looking at is the so-called "well-rounded student" and the one single-path that represents. They could instead look at students who have either good grades or good standardized test scores, and perhaps three other different paths as well.

Interesting. Possibly a sign autistics are an evolution of the species?
Just speculating.

It could be. But this isn't a determinist universe. If we want that to be so we must make it so. THere's also the issue of autism itself being an overcrowded junk taxon.