Great Thinkers

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Einstein in fact did NOT give us String Theory. That was given to us by Edward Witten and is primarily based on quantum mechanics yet meant to reconcile quatum theory with general relativity. I am very skeptical that Einstein was an aspie because despite his developmental delays, he had a GREAT deal of empathy for others and did not experience the kind of difficulties relating to others in his adult life.





"The oldest and strongest emotion in mankind is Fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is that of the Unknown"

-H. P. Lovecraft: For SURE a definitive Aspie

What wonderfull sounding tripe. the author might as well say, War is Peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strenth.

It is no sign of health, to be well adjusted to a sick society

-George Orwell

I am very empathetic. I think the non empathetic aspies are the ones who are obviously different and so they get diagnosed earlier and more often.

That was Krishnamurti, not Orwell.

One of my favorites: Every gun that is made, every rocket fired, every warship launched, signifies in the final a sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who are cold and are not clothed.- President Dwight David Eisenhower.

"People with Asperger's syndrome and other autistics have feelings just like anyone else. They have a reduced ability to read body language, but that doesn't mean that they are not sympathetic. Once aware of another's circumstances or feelings, they will have the same degree of compassion as anyone else.

In some circumstances you can expect more in the way of sympathy from someone on the Spectrum. Autistics' compassion is based on information gained empirically (empirical data). Therefore it is likely that the autistic may have compassion even where there is no coincidental body language to go with the event.

So expect someone on the Spectrum not to notice some things, but expect a great deal of compassion - yes empathy - once the situation becomes clear."

http://www.scn.org/autistics/empathy.html




"Only two things are infinite, the Universe, and human stupidity, and i'm not so sure about the former."

Albert Einstein

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Albert Einstein was NOT nearly as socially inept as many of you folks seem to think he was. Beyond his abnormal development in childhood and adolescence he grew up to become a successful, well-adjusted adult. Lovecraft on the other hand, did NOT. I dont understand why H P Lovecraft fans as well as other aspies arent pointing the finger at him as being one of us..........

Deep thinkers seek out solitude..

I doubt if he found time to be around people a lot.. for this very reason..

I think all of us can be around people when we have to.. like going to school.. job.. family.. friends.. etc.. but we are not always comfortable doing it.

I haven't read his biography though.. this is just my reasoning.

Do you have any kind of biographical written evidence you could refer us to.. ?

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"Einstein's gifts inevitably resulted in his dwelling much in intellectual solitude and, for relaxation, music played an important part in his life. He married Mileva Maric in 1903 and they had a daughter and two sons; their marriage was dissolved in 1919 and in the same year he married his cousin, Elsa Löwenthal, who died in 1936. He died on April 18, 1955 at Princeton, New Jersey."

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/phys ... n-bio.html


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“Even when walking in the company of two other men, I am bound to be able to learn from them. The good points of the one I copy; the bad points I see in the other I correct in myself.”

Confucius

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Eeeek... the return of the alien eye.. =:-0

I'm sure you only use it when you want to traumatize me..

Oh.. if only Dr Who were here.. with his tardis..

To save our (wrong) planet.. from such alien postings...

In fact.. I think I'll give him a ring..

To report an alien sighting.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qZUpb8Pz9c

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“When we talk in company we lose our unique tone of voice, and this leads us to make statements which is no way correspond to our real thoughts.”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
It is a new one...or perhaps one I have not noticed before. I wish I had bizarre eyes, to level they playing field in the eye contact game.

"If one looks at it like that, one could say a game is a failed attempt to be close to people. The participants want to be close and authentic with each other, but don't quite manage the risks of being open and honest and instead go for a slightly more predictable relationship pattern, a game (see also time structuring).

Although games leave us feeling bad, they are still structured according to predictable lines: the same thing happens again and again, which is much less frightening than going for the all-out unknown of being really close to someone.

If I choose to be close to another human being, all structure goes, there is just you and me relating to each other, and anything may happen! For some people that's a very frightening thing, so they divert their energy into games instead."

Eric Berne - The Games People Play



Well.. I think you do very well at the eye contact game on WP..

Even if your choice of eye can be a bit scarey at times..

And.. is the winner of this game going to get a prize.. ?

For example.. can I be King of America.. if I win.. ?

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It is not night when I do see your face,
Therefore I think I am not in the night;
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
For you in my respect are all the world:
Then how can it be said I am alone,
When all the world is here to look on me?
~ William Shakespeare

I do have empathy, well, limited empathy in the sense that I can recognize feelings in others that I too have felt before. Nonetheless Magnus, HOW does any of this even suggest that its Likely Albert Einstein had Asperger Syndrome? Why focus on him as opposed to H P Lovecraft? Is it cuz he's so famous? The aspergers diagnostic speculation seems to ONLY target mathematicians and scientists for the most part thanks to a whole lot of stereotypes.

"His fame lives in the world." ~ William Shakespeare


“It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.” ~ Albert Einstein

"As a child I felt myself to be alone, and I am still, because I know things and must hint at things which others apparently know nothing of, and for the most part do not want to know. Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible. The loneliness began with the experiences of my early dreams, and reached its climax at the time at the time when I was working on the unconscious.

If a man knows more than others, he becomes lonely. But loneliness is not necessarily inimical to companionship, for no one is more sensitive to companionship than the lonely person, and companionship thrives only when each individual remembers his individuality and does not identify himself with others.

I have had much trouble in living with my ideas. There was a daemon in me, and in the end its presence proved decisive; it overpowered me. I could never stop at anything once attained. I had to hasten on, to catch up with my vision. Since my contemparies, understandably, could not perceive my vision, they saw only a fool rushing ahead.

I have offended many people, for as soon as I saw that they did not understand me, that was the end of the matter so far as I was concerned: I had to move on. I had no patience with people. I had to obey an inner law which was imposed on me and left me no freedom of choice. Of course, I did not always obey it. How can anyone live without inconsistency?

For some people I was continually present and close to them so long as they were related to my inner world; but then it might happen that I was no longer with them, because there was nothing left which would link me to them. I had to learn painfully that people continued to exist even when they had nothing more to say to me.

Many excited in me a feeling of living humanity, but only when they appeared within the magic circle of psychology; next moment, when the spotlight cast its beam elsewhere, there was nothing to be seen. I was able to become intensely interested in people; but as soon as I had seen through them, the magic was gone. In this way I made many enemies.

A creative person has little power over his own life. He is not free. He is captive and driven by his daemon. Perhaps I might say: I need people to a higher degree than others, and at the same time much less."

Extract from "Memories, Dreams and Reflections" by Carl Jung


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