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Company Trains the Autistic To Test Software
Aspiritech, a Chicago based non-profit company, has launched a program to train high-functioning autistic people as testers for software development companies. The company says autistics have a talent for spotting imperfections, and thrive on predictable, monotonous work. Aspiritech is not the first company to explore the idea of treating this handicap as a resource. Specialisterne, a Danish company founded in 2004, also trains autistics. They hire their workforce out as hourly consultants to do data entry, assembly line jobs and work that many would find tedious and repetitive.
We just have to figure a way to build an economy around the counting of toothpicks.
It's called "inability to adapt". That's the difference between autistics and us. You and me might not know the answer to a new problem, but we will TRY to figure a way. An autistic will flat out shut down right there. The code just ain't right. Autistics can only survive in the presence of adaptables. Left to their own devices, they will perish. I'm sure you love your son, but you have to face facts. His inability to adapt means he will NOT survive without people not like him.
He would fail at programming. Programming means new and different problems, which have to be reconciled from abstract to explicit. You son seems to simply be a blank slate, a hard drive. Given you description, he would be better suited to being a docent, someone who simply spits back facts that others have already found. An Ornithologist is more than that. An Ornithologist would actually discover new data, and create theories and look at new possibilities, and draw conclusions. At most, he'd be an Ornithologist's 3rd assistant, someone to entrust with raw data for instant recall.
You said he could recite a cartoon episode. Nice feat. But can he draw conclusions from it? Can he make comparisons? Can he postulate new possibilities from existing data? Can he find flaws, posit new improvements?
Judging by your grammar and spelling, your IQ is in the room temperature range. When you posit that your offspring is not retarded, it strongly enhances your case if you appear to be modestly intelligent.