But only 'cause I am lazy!

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Having learned of the brutal(but only 'cause I am lazy!) life of dark age and medieval peasants lives, (and I presume stone and bronze age), I now think that autism would be a benefitial trait in those eras.

1. You eat the same thing day after day.
2. No loud noises, no bright colors/flashy things.
3. Activities are monotonous and last hours/all day.
4. limited amount of people around you. Never any strangers..
5. Half a dozen other reasons.

Since obsessions are(of course) limited by personal exposure, and a peasant would only know the dozen or so activities needed for survival, your special interest would fall within these, and you would be an automatic savant/wise person, and valued beyond your barely noticible eccentricities.

Futhermore, said interest skills would be picked up earlier than typical, rendering you useful for the community at an earlier age.

So, I theorize that autism is a heritable mutation, and that it eases and facilitates the lives of people in primative sustenance level social groups.

Further, limited emotional empathy would shield the dark ages autist from the dispair and misery around them.

So its not hunter gatherer atavism, nor is it the next stage of evolution.

Critiques? comments? Better arguments?

Would not agree with most of this coz most common in austism people is shyness & social anxiety - or social phobia - which our body prepares itself to fight or run...

Which is something a hunter gatherer would most likely probably go through...

As for stranger's you would meet them....


Since obsessions are(of course) limited by personal exposure I don't think this is true as ive been exposed to alot of things but my obsession is in Game Programming, sure the other stuff is science, maths, medical type line stuff we become obsessed about should start a poll on obessions to see this stuff flood.... for people in stuff like trains and that I guess it could be classed as ...??

And im sure alot of maths people will relate in been very skilled even young probably...

as for evolotion the char of it is genetic side effect's or mutations that try to adapt to it's env since - Nt's are not even adapted for the past 100 year's maybe it is maybe it's not, really people can spend alot of they lifes in this subject, alot of famous people too....

That's my theory that it is evolotion...

Missed out we adapted to been able to use technology better - natural learn by our self..

Social anxiety would be HUGE penalty in hunter gatherer societies, as your choice in potential mates would be unfathomably small. Instinctual social skills would be needed for making an outstanding first impression, as you would encounter people unexpectly and infrequently. In hunter gatherer society, all people other than family are strangers. Shyness counts double.

In a static society, where you live in the same place your whole life, you have a long time to make a positive impression, and stability and familiarity are more important. You likely know the person you marry for their whole lives.

You likely know less than 50 people(at least in the dark ages). In medieval times, the middle ages, you would go to faires in a larger community, but 200-300 people would be a HUGE gathering. Your world, your life was spend in an small area. It was highly unlikely that you traveled more than 5 miles from the point of your birth!

As far as strangers go, there was little reason to travel, as the village over the hill was just like yours. Why would a stranger come through?



I'm sure I misspoke somehow. Forgive me.

In those times, you could not read, nor write, nor knew anyone that could. You knew your family and the half dozen families in your village, and maybe a few people in the next village. none of them could read or write either. None of you had ever seen money, let alone ever had any. What was there to spend it on anyway? Everyone else had the same as you.

What you learned you learned from them, and the skills you had were the same skill sets that your great grandfathers had. A lot of those people would not have even been aware that writing existed, let alone have the skill. What you did for 'work' was simply to eat. you ate the fruits of your efforts.

What I meant was, You cannot have an obsession for an item or knowledge that you have not been exposed to at all. Thats a silly obvious statement on my part, and likely caused some confusion, but it bears looking at. Our celebrity Cockney rebel loves her buses, but if they didnt exist, or she didnt know they existed, she would lock onto something else, right? A medieval aspie would have an obsession taken from farming, weaving, cooking, or wood craft. Perhaps an obsession with faeries or wild animals.

The point being made is this: an obsession is an unctious sublime experience derived from an element, idea or event present in your life. If all your life consists of is digging in the dirt, you will find your aspie fix there somewhere.



Hard to say the extent of mathmatics knowledge. Simple adding and subtracting, counting to the digit limits of working memory... Some aspies would have an enhanced working memory. In comparison, our modern society has an average working numerical memory of 7 or so digits, the length of a phone number. That varies by country of course.



Mutations dont TRY anything. They just are.

NTs by definition are socially adapted. Society is not an entity to adapt to; it is a result of actions and values held by the populace at large.



Good point. I dont know that we use technology better, but we do seem to learn better on our own.

In tribal societies schizophrenics are given the job of nightwatchman.

They sleep in the daytime.
They prefer isolation.
They're more paranoid than average.

They fit right in.