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LupaLuna
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15 Mar 2014, 6:04 pm

If you want to know what my theory about Asperger's is? When you consider that the modern world has amass so much knowledge to the point that a kid need over 15 years of school just to get anywhere in life and the fact that we are communicating with each other more by means of phone, text and e-mail and less by face-to-face in person. I think that are brains are just adapting to the modern environment by shedding the resources that once where used for processing body language and reallocating them to boost are intellect and IQ. As an aspie myself. I'd rather work on solving a differential equation then to look someone in the eye in a social situation. Because to me, socializing is very very intellectually exhausting work because it's not an instinct response for me like it is for an NT and I have to consciously think about how I act in front of other people.

Just thought I just toss that out there and see that you think.



BorgPrince
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15 Mar 2014, 6:56 pm

Your theory is merely a variation of the "Aspies are the next stage of evolution" nonsense. I doubt most Aspies even know what a differential equation is.



ReticentJaeger
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15 Mar 2014, 7:15 pm

BorgPrince wrote:
I doubt most Aspies even know what a differential equation is.


Googles 'differential equation'...

Yeahhh...



AspE
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15 Mar 2014, 7:24 pm

No, we don't communicate substantially more than people did some time ago.



JSBACHlover
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15 Mar 2014, 7:55 pm

We are not responding to our environment in an evolutionarily adaptive way. We are simply responding to our environment differently. Frankly, I don't think evolution explains very much at all when it comes to modern society. We've created an artificial buffer, called culture, which prevents evolutionary processes (for the better, mind you).



Verdandi
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15 Mar 2014, 8:22 pm

JSBACHlover wrote:
We are not responding to our environment in an evolutionarily adaptive way. We are simply responding to our environment differently. Frankly, I don't think evolution explains very much at all when it comes to modern society. We've created an artificial buffer, called culture, which prevents evolutionary processes (for the better, mind you).


Nothing prevents evolutionary processes. Culture simply provides a different environment to adapt to. The only way you can prevent evolution is to eliminate life.



linatet
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15 Mar 2014, 8:39 pm

Verdandi wrote:
JSBACHlover wrote:
We are not responding to our environment in an evolutionarily adaptive way. We are simply responding to our environment differently. Frankly, I don't think evolution explains very much at all when it comes to modern society. We've created an artificial buffer, called culture, which prevents evolutionary processes (for the better, mind you).


Nothing prevents evolutionary processes. Culture simply provides a different environment to adapt to. The only way you can prevent evolution is to eliminate life.

I don't know much of biology so please don't kill me if what I am going to say is actually dumb.
but I think anticonceptionals and artificial reproduction are changing or mitigating evolutionary process. Because a person that has non-adaptive genes that wouldn't find a partner has the possibility to have children with artificial reproduction and a person that has very adaptive genes can choose not to have any children because of anticonceptionals. Today is not exactly like that but in the future it will probably get more and more common and cheaper.



Norny
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15 Mar 2014, 8:54 pm

LupaLuna wrote:
If you want to know what my theory about Asperger's is? When you consider that the modern world has amass so much knowledge to the point that a kid need over 15 years of school just to get anywhere in life and the fact that we are communicating with each other more by means of phone, text and e-mail and less by face-to-face in person. I think that are brains are just adapting to the modern environment by shedding the resources that once where used for processing body language and reallocating them to boost are intellect and IQ.


If that's advantageous, then an equally intelligent NT whom can also process body language and can function socially would be a 'step further'. Evolution doesn't provide organisms with the 'tools' they need anyway; even if we did communicate less face-to-face our brains wouldn't forcibly adapt, especially not in such a short period of time (20 or so years). Successful reproduction is the only real factor, and that's something individuals with AS struggle with.

LupaLuna wrote:
As an aspie myself. I'd rather work on solving a differential equation then to look someone in the eye in a social situation. Because to me, socializing is very very intellectually exhausting work because it's not an instinct response for me like it is for an NT and I have to consciously think about how I act in front of other people.


To me (though it may not be true) it sounds like you're suggesting that NTs are somewhat inferior via the typical intellect VS social misconception - you don't have to suck socially to be intelligent. If you enjoy working on differential equations that's cool but they should not be regarded more prestigious than social interactions purely because they're related to math.

In my opinion, you are an Aspie, and you are a highly intelligent individual. Perhaps certain traits of Asperger's better suit you to doing math, though I wouldn't say Asperger's is the reason you are intelligent. Most individuals with Asperger's have 'average intelligence' as prescribed by IQ tests and the like. Intelligence remains to be a vague term anyway. If a computer can do all kinds of math, does that make the computer intelligent?


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ASPartOfMe
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16 Mar 2014, 4:24 am

LupaLuna wrote:
If you want to know what my theory about Asperger's is? When you consider that the modern world has amass so much knowledge to the point that a kid need over 15 years of school just to get anywhere in life and the fact that we are communicating with each other more by means of phone, text and e-mail and less by face-to-face in person. I think that are brains are just adapting to the modern environment by shedding the resources that once where used for processing body language and reallocating them to boost are intellect and IQ. As an aspie myself. I'd rather work on solving a differential equation then to look someone in the eye in a social situation. Because to me, socializing is very very intellectually exhausting work because it's not an instinct response for me like it is for an NT and I have to consciously think about how I act in front of other people.

Just thought I just toss that out there and see that you think.


My theory is a variation on this. There is much more information, multi tasking is more important, we are connected all the time now Maybe it's post columbine, 9/11 or maybe it's the more media images of the "desirable" person, or the rise in social media, or combination of these but in my view we in more conformist era and being social has increased in importance. 40 years ago economic security was much more of a reality. Companies trained people and it was common for people to have the same career, work for company their whole life creating security and routine that is non existent today.

I think we have a similar percentage of people on the spectrum and these people are in similar places on the spectrum as we did back then. Since then nearly all societal changes have being negative for Autistic s. Is it any wonder that a whole lot of people who who would have been functional then, can't be today? And this must be true for all sorts of people. But the powers that be keep on insisting it is people faking it, being immoral, or weak.


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