What if NTs were the minority?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm sure someone has asked a question like this at some point before, but I'm curious.

ASD people constitute about 1%-5% of the population (depending on the estimate). I'm curious how you think the world would be different if the ratio was reversed. What if those with ASD constituted the 95%? Obviously, we would describe those we now call "neurotypicals" as having a "syndrome" or "disorder". How would we treat them? Would we treat them better than the way we are? Worse? The same?
For that matter, how would our world be different overall?

Here's a question for you: how would you imagine the distribution of ' severity' or ' functioning levels' to be in this scenario? So there would be a world in which 95 percent of the world's population were on the autistic spectrum. How many of those 95 percent would be 'mild'? How many 'moderate'? How many 'severe'? How would the more 'severely' autistic be treated in this society? Would they meet with more understanding, or more neglect, indifference, and misunderstanding?
How would all other disorders fare in this autistic=the-mainstream-world? Of those 95%, a considerable percentage would have co-morbids that would be viewed just as deviant from that world's mainstream just as they/we are now.

I somehow think that so-called 'NTs' would not be the only ones finding themselves in a predicament in an ASD-majority world. Human beings, like every other species, have the tendency to favour survival of the fittest. Those who would assert themselves in an ASD-geared society, would be the ones best equipped to manipulate the rules of society to their hand. Ironically, I wager that this would mean that, while yes, certain autistic traits would be highly favoured (like an eye for detail, a tendency toward straightforward communication, etc), but the ones among those autistics who are closest to 'neurotypical' in the sense of team-playing skills and charisma would come out on top. Because the key word is 'society', and you can't maintain a 'society' on poor social skills. If you attempt to run a society on autistic whims, you'll quickly see the deterioration of infrastructure, communication, and trade. Everyone would just want to be left alone and pursue their own interests. Communities would disintegrate into isolated independent small family units and solitary individuals, at best able to sustain life via personal agriculture or hunting, but cities would slowly be phased out.

Thanks for your opinion cyclops. I've heard others seem to think that we'd all just hold hands and sing kumbaya. But as you and I both know that's not human nature; doesn't matter if your an ASD or an NT.

I don't want to have to split hairs over the exact distributions of ASD severity. But we can imagine that the vast majority of people are moderate. Females tending towards the NT side while males tend to be more severe. Also, regarding comorbidity, let's just assume for the sake of argument that there is none.

I agree that NTs would probably be at the top. But I imagine that we may end up classifying them as being on the dark triad for being controlling, cunning, and manipulative.

In fact, there was a thread with the identical title just yesterday or the day before.

Logical-thinking Aspies would bully and ridicule NTs for being what would be perceived as their intellectual inferiors, and NTs would feel like second class citizens.

Just like now NT's bully and ridicule Aspies for what is perceived as them being socially inferior.

Of course they woudn't be called NTs.

< Proud Kumbaya singing autistic

Or, maybe what CyclopsSummers said.

Why would autistics be bullying? It is not in our nature, generally speaking, to feel better about ourselves by making others feel "less than."

I do believe that more "severely affected,' or autistics with more comorbidities would be treated better and have better quality of life. For one thing, our surroundings would no longer be a cacophany of torturous sensory overload. I would imagine that sensory issues are at least as bad for "severe" autistics than those considered high functioning. Also, at the risk of causing controversy, I believe that the poisons in our environment affect all humans, but I wonder if autistics tend towards even more sensitivities to them than most NTs'. I also believe that it is more difficult for autistics to see pain and suffering and convince themselves it'snot there than it is for NT's.

Also, I do believe [get ready to spit out that coffee in disbelief] that we are wired for superior cooperation as compared to NTs'. Integrity is NOT synonymous with being independent. If there is one myth[ in my opinion] about autism that is perpetrated by mostly other autistics, it is that we are too independent to cooperate. I cannot begin to fathom how one is exclusive from the other.

With less of a need for power among autistics, and everyone just giving their best, there is more cooperation. Cooperating with each other, gaining strength from others strength, giving strength where there is weakness, that is not only a really nice, decent thing to do, but logical.

As for autistics who consider themselves above other people because of their high intellect, well, we have NT snobs too. But, in this NT run world, it is easier for the NT snobs to call the shots than it would be for an autistic snob in an autistic run world. Why? Because we [autistics] tend towards integrity, too much integrity to blindly follow like lemmings and believe that those more intellectually gifted are superior. Few autistics would fall for a load of crap like that.

I could continue, but I need to join my clowder. We're singing "Kumbaya". In [nearly] perfect,cooperative harmony.

[quote="CyclopsSummers"] Because the key word is 'society', and you can't maintain a 'society' on poor social skills.

Have you ever been to an autistic support group? I have. I have never been aware of any social problems there.

Have you ever been somewhere such as Autreat or Autscape, where interaction and interest badges are used? You can cut right through the weather and sports teams small talk and go straight to the meat. If you want to be approached, you can be pretty confident that you will be. If you want to be left alone, or are desperately in need of a hug, utilizing logical autistic designed methods will prevent misunderstanding, and give you that big bear hug you're so desperate for at the moment.

I find myself in agreement with vicky. what causes snobbishness anyway? (insecurities?) I have personally found that if you experience a lot of pain in life (and hold onto that pain) you become very self-focused, and withdraw from others. It is called survival-mode. A lot of people on the spectrum crave human interaction (but also enjoy their independence from the crowd). There is a forum here that is dedicated to relationships. The issue is that a lot of NTs have less tolerance for the way we think and behave. And we don't give NTs what they want or have come to expect. Sometimes they are resistant to putting in their 50% effort, instead they expect us to do the 100%. I would imagine that in a predominantly non-NT world people would be drawn to others that have similar interests.

This is slightly off-topic but I have read anthropological articles on research done on indigenous communities that were primarily hunter-gatherer-gardener orientated. There are still small pockets of these types of communities around the world. These communities were made up of individuals who were both independent and community orientated. They followed their interests, they were non-violent and developed intuitive rapport with others. Their communities thrived because of their ability to cooperate with one another (and other communities). It demonstrates that, across time, different psychologies (or ways of viewing the world) have existed. However, most of these communities, which thrived for thousands of years, were decimated by aggressive invaders. These communities adopted the conquerors way of thinking and lost knowledge about their original identities (unique view of the world). Speaking of non-violence, I was going to read up on non-violent communication - I may do that now.

Last edited by Sare on 15 Jan 2014, 6:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Of course it's in our nature, as it is in the nature of all human beings. Such is the curse of the flesh. Humans ostricize, exclude, and bully anybody who's defined as "different". We bully based on race, religion, behavior, level of attractiveness, sexual preference, or anything else. It's our subconscious telling us that people who are different in key ways are less related to us. And of course, the kin-selection model tells us that we will be more inclusive to those more like us, and less inclusive to those less like us.

That being said, there is a grain of truth in your claim. Aspies tend to have stronger feelings about bullying than neurotypicals (from my research), and this is attributed to the fact that aspies are common victims of bullying. However, I feel that this would likely be reversed if the frequencies flipped. I doubt aspie anti-bullying sentiment has anything to do with asperger's directly.

Feels like it would be more of a colony than a society. Task oriented rather than people oriented. The group will be driven by what you propose to do. I imagine much clearer rights and rules. However I see far more absolutes in punishment. Actions would define success or failure far more than intent would. I also imagine it would be far more compartmentalized.

The world would look like a giant space station with plenty of forests. Street cars would be a thing of the past. Flying vehicles would be everywhere. There would also be lots of hippies selling their handmade goods. There wouldn't be any wars. We wouldn't have to worry about the rising sea levels. Weather experts would be able to control temperatures around the world. There would be an abundance of factories and they'd all be ran on solar power instead of by fossil fuels. The reason for that would be because of the higher production rate that each and every company would enjoy due to the fact that Aspies are more task oriented than people oriented NTs. We'd need NTs to work the phones and relay verbal messages, though. Mods and hippies would also be teaching everybody about music in pairs to foster an appreciation of Classic Rock and Oldies in the minds of people of all ages, around the world. Punk Rockers would be the security guards.

Cockney Rebel; you're the bomb!

Someone's singing, my Lord, kumbaya...

Way back 12 months ago when I first signed up, I remember a thread similar to this one.

They were discussing wars. The conclusion was that wars would flare up suddenly and be very efficient. But as soon as someone got hurt, the war would be over just as quickly. I think this would be true.

When an NT is cruel, they go for the emotional hurt. And some of them are ruthless in that cruelty. I haven't witnessed cruelty from Autie's. But I have read many relationship books where cruelty to their partner was present.

It's an interesting question to scale that up to a society. Perhaps the corollary would be that laws would be easy to understand, and the law enforcement would be quick and efficient. Also Auties aren't great liars, so court cases would be quick too. And most abominable punishment? Community service.... hahaha.