Today, we officially announce the addition of Jack Robison to the LBRY team as Core Developer. Jack has been working on the project for some time, and we thought it was about time to recognize his growing role.

We value Jack for his bursts of creative energy. In fact, Jack has quite a history with explosions. In high school, some of his homemade chemistry experiments caught the attention of law enforcement. The incident quickly became national news and goes to show that Jack doesn’t do anything half way, which makes him a perfect fit for the LBRY team.

“When I was in high school my interest was chemistry, starting with energetics. Rockets and cannons fascinated me, and I wanted to know how they really worked,” Jack explained. “I pursued the answer to that question, and after a couple years I’d synthesized many of the common explosives used in the military, and I was experimenting with some compositions of my own design. That interest got cut short by the law, fortunately the outcome didn’t involve any orange jumpsuits.”

The case involved big booms, YouTube videos, and overzealous prosecutors. He faced up to 60 years in prison. You can read more about it here.

That experience pretty much nixed Jack’s passion for explosives. As he put it, “I pretty thoroughly lost interest after they indicted me.” So he redirected his focus into other areas of chemistry, specifically designing compounds for medical use.

This might sound like a wild story, but it’s actually more common than you’d think. Peter Thiel revealed in his book that several of the co-founders of Paypal built explosives in high school. It’s not that tech companies look to hire firecrackers. It’s just that people who disrupt industries have to be willing to take risks in the name of creating something cool. Jack has just that mentality.

We’ve seen him hone various aspects of our nascent protocol with a laser-like focus. This is common for people on the autism spectrum, which Jack discovered of himself after his indictment. In fact, his atypical mind may have blinded him to the possibility that his explosions were anything more than the ambitious chemistry experiments he saw.

Jack’s acquittal made him something of a celebrity in the “Aspie” community and he continues to advocate for autism rights. He has spoken on the subject around the country, even appearing on National Public Radio. The New York Times published a feature-length story about his activism and life, which is well worth a read.

Jack later developed interests in economics and Bitcoin. That led him to us. As he puts it:

“LBRY quickly caught my interest; I don’t know how a distributed content marketplace and delivery platform couldn’t. It has the right incentives to get people to act as they should, and by doing so, makes content available at the most efficient price. The market for information is muddled with friction throughout; LBRY gets rid of that. It’s a good time to be a nerd for markets! The blockchain has the potential to enable direct person-to-person transactions on an unprecedented scale.”

Having successfully pushed the boundaries in the autism community, he’s now ready to focus his talents on pushing the boundaries of technology and the Internet.

LBRY co-founder Jeremy Kauffman is thrilled to be working with Robison:

“Jack is one of the sharpest and most creative minds I’ve ever met. It’s surreal to think that mind could have gone to waste if things had gone a little differently. We’re all very glad we’re in the universe where Jack did not go jail, and I’m personally excited to have such an innovative mind working on LBRY.”

Jack jumped into LBRY with both feet and we quickly discovered he is an amazingly fast learner. His sharp mind and astute problem solving skills are quickly turning Jack into a leader on the LBRY team.

Here’s the original announcement

The post Autistic Jack Robison Escaped 60 Years in Prison; Now He’s Revolutionizing the Internet appeared first on Wrong Planet.

If You Could Say it in Words is a great new film about an autistic protagonist Nelson and his experience with love. The film came out on DVD yesterday, November 23, 2010. In this episode of Autism Talk TV, I switch sides of the camera and get interviewed along with director Nicholas Gray and actors Alvin Keith and Marin Ireland about the project. Nicholas has graciously offered to allow approved nonprofits to screen the film for for benefits and community events.

I first learned about If You Could Say it in Words in October of 2006. I was contacted by the director, Nicholas Gray, who had found my interview of Heather Kuzmich from America’s Next Top Model.
After getting the chance to watch the film, I was very excited. I interviewed Nicholas, and actor Alvin Keith, at my home in Virginia. Shortly after the interview was published, I posted a review of the movie to Wrong Planet, in which I described the film as having “the most authentic portrayal of an autistic person that I’ve ever seen in the movies.”. After I had posted these two articles to Wrong Planet, director Nicholas Gray and I became friends. Needless to say, I was very happy when he called me and told me that he had secured a distributor for the film.

Nicholas licensed my documentary ‘autism reality’ to include in the special features of the DVD for If You Could Say it in Words. In addition, he asked me to produce a documentary about the plight of the undiagnosed Aspie.

Nicholas has graciously offered to allow approved nonprofits to screen the film for community events. Some nonprofits have already taken advantage of this program. You can contactAdam Eisenstein if your organization is interested showing If You Could Say it in Words at one of your events. Contact aeisenstein@chipchair.com for more information.

Now, please enjoy episode 11 of Autism Talk TV!

The post Autism Talk TV – Ep. 11 – If You Could Say it in Words appeared first on Wrong Planet.

Read on to listen to an interview with the director and lead actor. We also have exclusive video clips from the movie.

Audio Interview:
(player not working? download the mp3)

If you Could Say it in Words, stands out as a unique story of a man who belongs to an economic, racial, and a neurological minority. Due to the culture he grows up in, Nelson is never diagnosed with Asperger’s and the syndrome is never mentioned by name. However, it is clear from Nelson’s behaviors and quirks, that he would have been diagnosed with Asperger’s if he had grown up in a more advantaged family.

Nelson is played by Alvin Keith, who made his big screen debut in the critically acclaimed movie, Kinsey. His romantic interest, Sadie is played by Marin Ireland, an actress who was in The Manchurian Candidate and I am Legend.

I talked with director Nicholas Gray and actor Alvin Keith who visited me at my house in Virginia. We had so much fun talking that our conversation lasted hours. Consequently I will not be transcribing the interview and will instead be including the audio file which you can listen to near the top of this page.

Nicholas has provided us with some trailers of the film which have been embedded into this article for your viewing enjoyment.

Clips from the movie:

If You Could Only Say it in Words – Official Site

The post If You Could Say it in Words: New Asperger’s Movie (Interview) appeared first on Wrong Planet.

Duke University student John Finan’s “mood phone” placed first among five hundred submissions. The phone, designed to interpret the mood of the person on the other end of the line, is meant to help individuals with Asperger’s syndrome who may have difficulty recognizing emotional and social cues in the speech of others.
“The ability to dream is one of youth’s greatest assets. MOTOFWRD allows the next generation of scientists, inventors and designers to show us their best,” said Motorola chief technology officer Padmasree Warrior.

“Most people don’t think of a gadget as a solution to Aspergers. But a truly new tool that makes people freer to move and communicate can change behavior, and that is how a revolution begins,” Finan said.

For his innovation, Finan was awarded $10,000, a Bluetooth enabled car, a suite of Motorola products and an apprenticeship with Motorola’s chief technology office.

The post Asperger’s Phone wins Motorola design contest appeared first on Wrong Planet.

“In an effort to streamline data-gathering processes and support the therapy team. . .

Link to article
“In treating children with autism, it is critical in many programs and services to track significant amounts of data, both for reporting purposes and in assessing learning, behavior and intervention effectiveness. Current data collection techniques can be extremely time consuming, may inhibit the caregiver-child interaction, may be subjective, and do not always communicate all of the information needed to fully assess the skills and treatment objectives under consideration.

“In an effort to streamline data-gathering processes and support the therapy teams working with individuals with autism, Gregory Abowd, D.Phil. and his research team have received a CAN Innovative Technology for Autism grant award.”

The post Technology Support to Track the Effectiveness of Intervention Therapies appeared first on Wrong Planet.

Link to article

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