With reference to the "geek syndrome" article, I had noticed many postings that may need further clarification. Writing as someone on the spectrum, I hope those of you really interested in pursuing this issue will take the effort to understand in more details. Surely receiving a direct account surely beats receiving second or third-hand accounts.
In short, autism does exist. It had existed before in history and seemed to have played a pivotal role in influencing human history. It has biological roots and quite a number of researchers do take it seriously. Some of the reference below might have good use.
Notes:
AC = Autism & Cousin Spectrum People
NT = Neurotypical - normal people
Shadow AC = Someone with quite some AC traits but do not fulfill dx criteria
A booklet I use to introduce others to autism in real life
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/autism_mediation/fil es/Introduction_to_Autism.zip
Heuristics on Diagnosing ACs (if you find it strange, then you don't have AC)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Personal_Discourses/ message/102
Articles on AC
- About Political Animals
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Personal_Discourses/ message/107
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Personal_Discourses/ message/108
- NT Strangeness, a joke I sent to the NT Research website
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Personal_Discourses/ message/48
- Reply to "Stamp out Antidisabilitarianism?", a recent message
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Personal_Discourses/ message/106
Refer to:
http://eric.webhop.net for more writings
http://sociologistics.webhop.org for a society project I founded
http://www.shifth.mistral.co.uk/autism/mind.htm
People with the capacity for great depth of interest, adapted for pathfinding at the edge of the known, are poor at elaborate low risk/low gain social activity. This is because language and self are the most dense and complex areas of the interest system, requiring maximum breadth of modelling. We postulate that self and language tasks as they are habitually performed may require more breadth of arousal than is available in some interest systems. Many of the problems in relating to society experienced by people described as autistic are the result of different modalities of language use and of the modelling of the self, other and the words between.
The other extreme of this normal distribution of types of mind consists of people with very broad but not very deep minds. This category includes those most highly rewarded by society, chat show hosts and politicians. Such people do not posses outstanding specific talents, but have great ability to model other people, giving them power to manipulate social, rather than actual, situations.
We cannot think of Autism as an illness for which a cure can be discovered [17]. We do however observe in people described as Autistic a cast of mind that renders them unsuitable for conventional forms of employment. However, we see this economic frame of reference as holding the key to a happy outcome. In benign circumstances, people with the capacity for deep concentration have a great capacity to learn skills which are beyond the broad mind. Mass production culture may have deprived the deep minded of occasion to contribute to society as the pathfinders to physical resources, but it has opened a vast spectrum of new opportunities.
It is the deep mind that has the capacity to read, understand and apply the technical manual, to enter into the intricate labyrinth of the logic of the integrated circuit and the computer program. It is the forager mind, insensitive to the way everybody knows things should be done, which creates the paradigm transforming technologies. Appropriate education would enable many ingenious and creative people to be part of things, who are now totally excluded from the mainstream of society. Education based on understanding could transform this apparent problem into an opportunity.
Every population has a surface, however diffuse. This fact of topology firmly drives brain evolution. Autism in particular is primarily the result of adaptation to the inevitable sparseness of population outer regions. This yields not only autism, but an autism spectrum. It also gives rise to the great variety of autistic forms and genes. These conclusions sharply limit the possible clarity of autism diagnosis and preclude any simplistic "silver-bullet" response to the rigors of autism. The theory accounts for the observed correlation of autism and gender, and predicts a correlation with latitude of ancestral homeland. Autism emerges as a major feature of brain evolution: It is generally not a disease. Autism has been with humans as long as humans have been and has markedly influenced human history. It evidently has shaped forms of religious practice.
Main Theory Page:
http://attictwo.best.vwh.net/AASCEND/TOPO/
Good resources and or links to multiple websites
http://www.hunnybee.com/autism
http://www.tonyattwood.com/
http://www.autismconnect.org/
Joke:
http://isnt.autistics.org/index.html
Other links:
- Autism may hold key to mastering maths
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000343180237640&a mp;rtmo=lS7bwvbt&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/99/3/22/naut22.html
- Study finds autism in girls being overlooked
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000343180237640&a mp;rtmo=VFj4FV1x&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/98/1 1/21/naut21.html
- Professor Snyder's most recent publications
Contains data about autism too
http://www.centreforthemind.com/publications/publi cations.htm
Slashdot Mirror
With reference to the "geek syndrome" article, I had noticed many postings that may need further clarification. Writing as someone on the spectrum, I hope those of you really interested in pursuing this issue will take the effort to understand in more details. Surely receiving a direct account surely beats receiving second or third-hand accounts.
l es/Introduction_to_Autism.zip
/ message/102
/ message/107/ message/108
/ message/48
/ message/106
o ry.html
a mp;rtmo=lS7bwvbt&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/99/3 /22/naut22.html
a mp;rtmo=VFj4FV1x&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/98/1 1/21/naut21.html
i cations.htm
In short, autism does exist. It had existed before in history and seemed to have played a pivotal role in influencing human history. It has biological roots and quite a number of researchers do take it seriously. Some of the reference below might have good use.
Notes:
AC = Autism & Cousin Spectrum People
NT = Neurotypical - normal people
Shadow AC = Someone with quite some AC traits but do not fulfill dx criteria
A booklet I use to introduce others to autism in real life
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/autism_mediation/fi
Heuristics on Diagnosing ACs (if you find it strange, then you don't have AC)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Personal_Discourses
Articles on AC
- About Political Animals
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Personal_Discourses
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Personal_Discourses
- NT Strangeness, a joke I sent to the NT Research website
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Personal_Discourses
- Reply to "Stamp out Antidisabilitarianism?", a recent message
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Personal_Discourses
Refer to:
http://eric.webhop.net for more writings
http://sociologistics.webhop.org for a society project I founded
http://www.shifth.mistral.co.uk/autism/mind.htm
People with the capacity for great depth of interest, adapted for pathfinding at the edge of the known, are poor at elaborate low risk/low gain social activity. This is because language and self are the most dense and complex areas of the interest system, requiring maximum breadth of modelling. We postulate that self and language tasks as they are habitually performed may require more breadth of arousal than is available in some interest systems. Many of the problems in relating to society experienced by people described as autistic are the result of different modalities of language use and of the modelling of the self, other and the words between.
The other extreme of this normal distribution of types of mind consists of people with very broad but not very deep minds. This category includes those most highly rewarded by society, chat show hosts and politicians. Such people do not posses outstanding specific talents, but have great ability to model other people, giving them power to manipulate social, rather than actual, situations.
We cannot think of Autism as an illness for which a cure can be discovered [17]. We do however observe in people described as Autistic a cast of mind that renders them unsuitable for conventional forms of employment. However, we see this economic frame of reference as holding the key to a happy outcome. In benign circumstances, people with the capacity for deep concentration have a great capacity to learn skills which are beyond the broad mind. Mass production culture may have deprived the deep minded of occasion to contribute to society as the pathfinders to physical resources, but it has opened a vast spectrum of new opportunities.
It is the deep mind that has the capacity to read, understand and apply the technical manual, to enter into the intricate labyrinth of the logic of the integrated circuit and the computer program. It is the forager mind, insensitive to the way everybody knows things should be done, which creates the paradigm transforming technologies. Appropriate education would enable many ingenious and creative people to be part of things, who are now totally excluded from the mainstream of society. Education based on understanding could transform this apparent problem into an opportunity.
Every population has a surface, however diffuse. This fact of topology firmly drives brain evolution. Autism in particular is primarily the result of adaptation to the inevitable sparseness of population outer regions. This yields not only autism, but an autism spectrum. It also gives rise to the great variety of autistic forms and genes. These conclusions sharply limit the possible clarity of autism diagnosis and preclude any simplistic "silver-bullet" response to the rigors of autism. The theory accounts for the observed correlation of autism and gender, and predicts a correlation with latitude of ancestral homeland. Autism emerges as a major feature of brain evolution: It is generally not a disease. Autism has been with humans as long as humans have been and has markedly influenced human history. It evidently has shaped forms of religious practice.
http://attictwo.best.vwh.net/AASCEND/TOPO/topothe
Main Theory Page:
http://attictwo.best.vwh.net/AASCEND/TOPO/
Good resources and or links to multiple websites
http://www.hunnybee.com/autism
http://www.tonyattwood.com/
http://www.autismconnect.org/
Joke:
http://isnt.autistics.org/index.html
Other links:
- Autism may hold key to mastering maths
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000343180237640&
- Study finds autism in girls being overlooked
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000343180237640&
- Professor Snyder's most recent publications
Contains data about autism too
http://www.centreforthemind.com/publications/publ