TheValk wrote:
Most of the community probably shares the torment of today's infrastructure being made for others and not fitting us nearly as well. But do you ever imagine yourself living in older times without the conveniences that keep us distant from the rest yet still functioning? Do you think you'd be more encouraged to come out of your shell or, on the contrary, you'd function less effectively?
I think being autistic decades ago (at least) can't have been more convenient.
I think for us who are higher-functioning, medieval times would have been better. In past centuries, a lot of your position in life with respect to work was determined by your family, and marriages were arranged. While, before, many things were predetermined, now, everything is open and competitive, and NT's use their social skills to get ahead--in both love and work. Social skills weren't nearly as important back then for these things.
I'd much rather live in a highly formal society where I'm told what to do, and life has a simple, predictable, formal structure, like medieval society. I am very good at following rules and doing what I'm told. I suck at networking and dating, so put me in any totalitarian society, and I'd have a much happier life relative to my peers in similar circumstances. I'm high-functioning enough that I wouldn't have been sent to the madhouse, most likely, so I think my life would have been objectively better than it is today, especially since my family comes from nobility.
If I lived in medieval times, I could also have eliminated NT's who disliked me by becoming an expert at sword play (I become an expert at everything I put my mind to except social skills) and challenging them to duels. If I were actually from at least a little bit noble birth, I could also have used this trick to eliminate suitors to women I liked.