AS: Next evolutionary step

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A half year or so ago I saw a article about people with AS being perhaps a step forward in human evolution, thanks to the many positive triats we possess. I lost that link immediately. Does anyone know what article I mean and how I can re-link to it? It was a quite intensive and convincing article.

couldn't this have just been moved from Adult?

hmmm....

well, from a sociobiological standpoint, the idea is to create future generations and breed prolifically to ensure the survival of the species. Given some of us, we're not holding up that end of the bargain...

I dunno...could just be a variety of 'ol homo sap...

No.

Well, I guess, but as one can see from the number of posts I've done, I don't know about such things. All I'm looking for is a article that I'm sure others saw. I don't want to start any discussions or theories. As Sargent Friday said on "Dragnet"--"just the facts mame, just the facts". It was mentioned here in the boards, and was so convincing I can't believe anyone didn't note it.

I don't have the link but this is an interesting theory and I would like to know more about it.

I have not read anything on the subject, but to me it sounds unscientific.

Evolution most often is used to describe the development of a species caused by

1) mutations,
2) genes that gives some kind of advantage to it's carriers or causes a higher rate of reproduction,
3) and the competition between individuals which ensures that only the best adapted survives.

(Something like that. Forgive me if i made some small error. )

One: There is practically no such competition, at least not in the industrial world. (Which might cause genetical dieases to become more common. )
Two: Autistics or aspies do usually not have a lot of children. Their genes will not become more common.

On the other hand,

IF autists and aspies in the future will have a higher average number of children, then autism will become more common, and MAYBE it could be seen as an evolution.

I guess some of you could define evolution better than i do.

Evolution is merely the word used to describe the pattern caused by the effects of natural selection over an extended period of time. I don't know if pattern is the right word to use, maybe just changes or process between an early form and a later form.

And you guys forgot something, indirect selection, your close relatives can pass your genes down for you. If a certain trait doesn't help the individual but instead the family then the survival of the family can proliferate seemingly doomed traits, such as altruism and homosexuality. Lets say that three thousand years ago there was a family that had the recessive gene(s) for AS, it would only show up in maybe one or two members out of two to five generations. This could perhaps give them some sort of advantage since they would have more perspectives and more diverse ideas. The short comings could be overcome by the rest of the group while the advantages are utilized for whatever purpose they may have. This is all hypothetical of course and highly unlikely.

I read a study about a population on some pacific islands( i think) in which homosexuals were treated with respect and were actually caregivers and babysitters for the children of relatives. This could give their relatives and their own genes a higher chance of survival and proliferation. Ant and bee colonies work in the same manner, the queen or the queen and one type of the species pass down the genes for all of the variants.

I don't know of the article, but i'll have a look for it.

As for whether it is true or not, it might be true some day. We might be the natural progression of the species, which I think is the phrase you were looking for. Evolution is the development of traits which ensure certain members of a species are more likely to survive and pass on their genes, and Aspergers syndrome is a hinderance to both survival and passing on genes. But Aspergers syndrome has the potential to provide a person with specialist skills and a higher intelligence, so given more time, as the genes are passed on and continue to mutate, it could one day manifest as a new level of autistic, which is essential an extremely high functioning autistic. They would be superior to current human beings in almost every way.

All that would be required then for this trait to become evolutionary is for this new advanced human to be more sexually attractive than normal humans. Since sexual attraction is now the only Darwinian trait humans require.

This might not be a distant thing though. In a way, Aspergers sydrome represents the natural progression of Autism, so as long as Aspies keep getting higher functioning, we are bringing this future one step closer.

Just don't count on waking up next week and being crowned the next evolutionary step/sexual magnet.

It has nothing to do with genes. It all has to do with the fact that we are better people than NTs . One just needs to look at whats happening to our world and see that people with AS are not responsible. I believe too that Tony Attwood touched on this evolution thing also. Fish came out of water and EVOLVED. It wasn't some special gene that kicked in.

There are far fewer humans with AS or autism than there are NTs so it would seem logical that most if not all of the problems caused by humans are their fault. I'm not saying that we couldn't do a better job if it were the other way around but i don't see how someone can say with any certainty that we could.

Fish came out of water due to mutations and genes kicking in, they evolved BEFORE they came out of the water. They went through long intermediate stages before they even reached the amphibian plateau, this involved lots of luck and environments that supported the survival of these stages and more than a few extinctions.

I wouldn't say that it is impossible that AS could play out as an intermediate stage, and our modern society which supports those less fit could be the required environment to allow for an awkward change. But that is a huge stretch, completely unsupported by scientific data.

I do like the idea of more hominan diversity though, i think some of the more genetically divergent and isolated races of H.s.sapiens should be considered separate subspecies.

That fish "came out of water and evolved" has a lot to do with genes. It didn't happen by itself, you know?

1) Fish mutated, got slightly modified genes.
2) The mutated fish survived well and reproduced.
3) Fish mutated, got slightly modified genes.
4) The mutated fish survived well and reproduced.

and so on, until the former fish had become a new species. It doesn't matter which fish is the best fish, or which people is the better people (to say aspies are better people is pretty fascist btw). Genes has to bring some advantage to the genes' carriers or there will be no evolution.

Also, read the first post that silentchaos wrote. He explains indirect selection and evolution overall great.

Yeah, like we start all the wars, steal money from the poor, lie, cheat, trash the environment. all that. If you can't see what neuro-typicals are doing to this planet. Vakna, lil Putte och titta runt, for javligt

If AS is the next evolutionary step, why do people with AS struggle to achieve success in today's enviroment? .. The "next" step is better at surviving and replicating in the current environment. Take a look around this forum and you'll see this certainly isn't the case with AS.

Shhhhh! There could be NTs reading this, we don't want them to figure out that it was really us that did all of that!

I think what you are referring to are malicious sociopaths and compensated sociopaths. I say malicious because we have no way of knowing how many altruistic sociopaths there are, since they wouldn't be committing violent crime for the fun of it and certainly wouldn't want to tell people they have no connections to humans. They might think a human is no better than a fly, but they may risk dying by swerving to avoid hitting a fly while driving. Anyways... there was a study that concluded that sociopaths and compensated sociopaths( people that tried to fix themselves by adopting strict morals that they do not understand) are more likely to seek out and excel in roles of authority than the average human. That means that the teacher you had in school that seemed like she just enjoyed giving homework on the weekend, well she may have enjoyed it after all. These people,compensated sociopaths especially, are probably to blame for much of humanity's woes. To compound this issue people are very easily influenced by people in power, so a few malicious sociopaths and compensated sociopaths could bend entire nations to their will via nationalism,xenophobia, patriotism, etc. Nazi germany is a good example of this.....

Again, i just refer to silentchaos' post:



And I mostly agree with silentchaos. I'd like to add one thing: We, the people on the spectrum (I consider myself one), ARE trashing the environment by our bare existance, and way of life. And that's just one example. Some spectrum people cheat, others lie, yet others steal. We are not the perfect people you wish we were.

Your rhetoric is a bit frightening. You're blaming all kinds of things on some other group of people that you're not part of. We've seen it before...

(Of course, nothing bad is going to happen to the NT population, no need to worry about that. It's your rhetoric in itself! Aarrgh! )

Funny to see you write in Swedish, but i suppose you don't know it fluently, so i have to use English, right?

Last edited by olle on 16 Mar 2008, 3:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.