Is Asperger's human evolution?

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I've herd and read a couple of times online of a fascinating theory that Is Asperger's may be human evolution at work. Where we're losing such things like social skills and improving in logical thinking and becoming more suited to adapt to the constantly growing and changing advanced technology world we're living in. Just wondered what you folks thought.

Heck no. Losing social skills does NOT make one more suited to prosper in western society.

Possibly

I voted no, i don't think anything is actually evolution, changes happen, if they work then we dub them evolution. They don't occur AS evolution or as a means to a goal but more of a ummm.....well think of this, if you poor water onto dirt it will be absorbed and make mud, it was not absorbed to make mud, instead it made mud because it was absorbed. That is the only way i can think of to how things do not happen as evolution, something can be superior in a certain manner and still fail miserably at genetic proliferation. T-rex was a pretty badass killing machine but it seems the ancestors of rodents and iguanas were more suited to long term survival.

I don't think small mammals prospered in the cretaceus but they seem to do ok now. This was to viska's statement.

I'm with you brother, I've read the same thing, but am being followed by a pack of pit bulls in another forum who fell that AS is a dead end street. We have so much to give humanity and everyone says that because we're not social, we can't move on. I have full confidence that Aspies can change the world. Just look at some of the great Aspies of our time.

Well, if this is true, I at least wish I wasn't so inflexible with my work. There's so much demand and I can't take all of it at once. I like the thought though. As for social skills, it's hard to be accepted in a world that is so competitive. I just wish there were better ways for me to communicate my thoughts without all that struggle and having to ask what they mean again.

It very well could be. The fact is, evolution is an ongoing process. We won't know what sticks around for the next few milenia. I happen to be particularly bright. I'd like to become a renaissance man of sorts - I'm a good inventor, logcal and creative. Try to connect as much current technology as I can... but I digress.

Admittedly, technology is getting to the point where we may be able to influence our own evolutionary path. Hey, Michio Kaku thinks we may become a Type 1 civilization in a few centuries.

Just checking: How long has nature nurtured social skills by making animals social? Evolution doesn't change course out of sudden.

How much autism would be the next step of evolution? If one thinks of average people with AS or low-functioning AS people or any kind of people with classical autism? Which kind of autistic people are the next step of evolution then and which kind is not?
What are all those who are not very hf from birth on? = Not talking about speech here, but the ability of a person to survive on their own. A 'freak accident' in the process of creation by experimentation? I know someone said this, somewhere else not here, but this is such a disturbing thing to say.

I would like to remind that speaking in terms of alleged evolutionary progress of humankind which is taking place right now and whose expression is increased number of people with AS being born in our times, many people raising this point in discussion seem to be blind to the truth that AS is not a thing of contemporary times, having ignored the fact it's not so that more and more such babies are born recently but such cases are simply recognised in contrast to the past.

I tend to think of it the way that insects specialized to do certain things. I think that society needs people with asperger traits. With the changing world, we may need "more" people with that trait. So it might be some form of evolution. I don't think the species as a whole is heading that way though. But what do I know?

The evolving door topic

I take this to mean that there may be more AS people in future because this trait is favourable for the species. I personally think this is so, but human evolution works differently than in the non human world of plants and animals, or in these lifeforms where humans do not have influence. By this I mean that without outside help, some variant species might not have survived to reproduce in the numbers we have now(eg the domestic dog and cattle species). Until humans sought to influence evolution, species took a long time to evolve from a common ancestor and this is what Darwin found on his voyage around the world on the Beagle, and which formed the basis of his book On the Origin of Species in 1859.

For people with AS to have survived there must have been some intervention, but we are still rare. We are a variation but not lethal, or we would have not survived to maturity and reproduced or else carriers of the AS/Autistic genes would not have reproduced. (It is easier to explain such variations in the animal world, and the exact genes causing AS/Autism have not been isolated yet.)

I personally think we will always be a minority but that human beings' mindsets will have to evolve and realize that variation in human abilities is wonderful for our species and can be beneficial in creative advances in culture/technology, etc.

I doubt AS in its current form is the future, however i do feel that it is better suited for life in future than NT. That is simply because of the way society is progressing. More and more narrowly specialised people will be needed, social skills are losing importance and what little of them will still be needed can probably be learned logically. Problem right now is that NT is still the prefered source of genes for next generations so some minor tweaking for AS to really become the next step, till then it will stay as a minority in the population.

I don't think so.

I think the reason that the theory tends to be so common (I've seen it a lot, at least) is because people, whether AS or NT, like to feel good about themselves. And by saying that we're the next step up in evolution, we're saying that we're better than the NTs, and that means that they're just jealous. In reality, we're not better than anyone, and I highly, highly doubt that they're jealous.

Evolution is natural; technology is not. Everyone is changing in some ways - years and years and years ago, those with poor eyesight would be at a sore disadvantage, but now it doesn't really matter - but that doesn't equal evolution. The whole world is not at the same place in technology either; the first world countries are obviously far more advanced in that aspect than the third world countries. But I'd bet that you'd find some people on the spectrum over there too; they wouldn't need to adapt to the increased reliance on computers, because they're not constantly able to get them.

Remember also, not all aspies are skilled with technology. Some are, but not all; others have different fields of expertise.

Finally, aspies seem to want social connection; look around here - there's obviously many people who talk about a lack of friend and/or relationships. It's not that they don't want social relationships - not always, anyway - but they can't attain them easily.