Watching the movie Parasite

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I just watched the movie "Parasite" recently (Best movie in Academy Awards a.k.a. the Oscars, this year). This is a quote that will stay for posterity https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/characters/nm0814280:

... You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan. No plan at all. You know why? Because life cannot be planned. ... So, there's no need for a plan. You can't go wrong with no plans. We don't need to make a plan for anything. It doesn't matter what will happen next.

The funny thing is, the same could be said about the movie. It evolved from one thing into another, and had a kind of weak final wrap-up. I mean, it was all fun to watch, but the ending could have been worked out a bit better.

The most I got out of the movie, was actually the above quote.

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Come to think about it, the above quote is also true with most parents of autistic children ... or with most autistic people themselves, for that matter.

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And then, I was looking into DNA recombination, in something called the Holliday junction. Something like



The Holliday junction can be resolved in two ways. One without cross-over, one with cross-over. In the case of cross-over, a DNA starts with one pair of strands and ends up with another pair of strands.

And that's the thing with most people, including neurotypical people, and people with bipolar disorder. I mean, I have hanged around with a lot of moms, and when they chit-chat, they drift from one subject to another. Similarly, people with bipolar disorder tend to be very creative, a bit like being able to come up with a movie script like "Parasite" ... but, at the end of the day, it is jumping from one idea to another. It's all very good for arts, for entertainment, for chit-chat. But not so good for science.

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I guess the main difference between us autistic people and other people (including neurotypicals and bipolars), is that there is this vorton component in our brain that makes us go back and revisit our thoughts, until we tie things up together. Some vorton loops are short and fast, but some others are long and slow. After the arrival of homo sapiens, for about 200,000 years there was actually not much happening. Humans were relatively dumb, not much different from animals. We only became civilized about 10,000 years ago, and I think that was because some humans have become autistic.

Cross-over of ideas by itself is not enough to solve problems. The creativity from bipolar artists is not enough for deep reasoning and exteriorization of information, to allow for the propagation of knowledge. Chit-chat can't materialize in science. It has to wait until the arrival of a written language and symbolic representations.

It's not about jumping from one idea to another. It's about revisiting the same subject, again and again, until perfection.

Long-term vortons are what have made us civilized. So, no matter the type of children (neurotypical, bipolar, autistic), I guess the eventual goal of development is to form long-term vorton-like loops inside their brains.

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I taught my son long division by drawing missiles https://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=384595. After I have shown the article to some teachers and parents, some of them have told me: what a clever idea, I will try to use missiles to teach my children, too. And I was left with a "huh?" feeling. I guess that is why people out there cannot understand me. I am talking about vortons and using each individual child's own interest to develop them. I am talking about "Pull, Not Push." Yet all what other parents/teachers can see are the missiles. I keep trying to make adults realize that they need to form those vortons inside their own brains, but invariably they always revert back to jumping from one idea to another. It's so hopeless. I am showing them the forest, but all they can see are the trees. There is no surprise that most autistic children don't develop well.

I don't understand...

So homo-sapiens used to be dumber and then there came to be autistic people and that is what made homo-sapiens more intelligent. I mean I just don't think that is backed by science, its an interesting idea but not sure it holds up.

Also what is wrong with teachers and other parents being interested in the method you found to teach your son long division? If that is what you showed them of course that is what they would respond to? And you could have perhaps explained your point wasn't so much to use the missile method but to find some way that works specifically for their child rather than deciding.

Also I find it is actually detrimental to get stuck in a loop too long, I can certainly end up dwelling on things which I don't find to be helpful. So could be you aren't correct that everyone should be trying to get their brain stuck in loops till they have analyzed the same topic so long they're beating a dead horse. Like could be maybe some people just don't agree with all those things you've said.

That's kind of expected, isn't it?


I have been talking about all these things for years. You could probably do better if you trace my past postings. Key: bow and arrows. Also, Square Root Law and Dunbar's Number.


Nothing wrong, but they can't get there. Because they only see missiles. Sure, I showed people how I taught my son long division by using missiles. But if people think I am talking about using missiles to teach children to do long division, then they have gotten the message completely wrong.

See, recently I went to San Antonio, Texas, for a conference. All of a sudden I realized that there was a hotel near the airport. I then remembered my son learned some of his earliest sentences from watching a YouTube video. In particular, he was interested in the flushing of a pressure-assisted toilet. He was able to memorize and repeat the sentence from the video. Guess what? My hotel stay was all paid for at a different place. But, that toilet meant so much to me, that I ended up spending about $200 (between Uber back and forth and the hotel room charge) for my last night, out of my own pocket. Yep, sentimental value about a specific toilet. I don't know, the hotel reservation people probably thought I was a weirdo, ha ha. But I did explain to them the background story and they did manage to get me the specific room with the specific toilet. What's the point of me going through this story? My point is, my son learned to speak, in part, from watching a video clip on flushing a toilet. If I tell people that a toilet is a great device for teaching children to speak, people would think that I am out of my mind. Ha ha. I tell people this story, and I sincerely hope that they don't go out and try to teach their children to speak by using a toilet, because that is not my message, at all. My main point is, follow your children's interests. See, back then, after my son watched the video, what I did was to grab a marker, and write down toilet brand names (e.g. Gerber, Kohler, etc.) on the toilets at home. See, I did do research about toilet brands. Very simple action, but those few words I wrote down on our toilet bowls were probably one million times more effective than years of speech therapy. Are you getting my point yet? The story has nothing to do with toilets. The story is about understanding your children, and communicating with them. Sure, I spend $200 to visit a toilet, but that is my thing. Sure, we spend one summer vacation in Northern California in part just to take our son to San Francisco to visit one particular elevator he has watched on YouTube. Several thousand dollars to visit an elevator (well, among other things). Those are our things. If other family want to copy us, then they surely would be out of their minds. It's never about toilet bowls or elevators. It's about understanding your children, and being able to communicate and develop them. Do you get it, now?


Nahh ... I have given plenty of talks, written plenty of explanation. Sure, when I give a talk, people clap. But by the time they reach their homes, they all revert back to chit-chat and jumping from one idea to another. See, just yesterday, some parents in a local online community that I belong to started to talk about vaccines again. See, no matter how hard you try, people would nod their heads in one moment, and then in the next moment they'll talk about vaccines and commiserate with each other. What those parents won't do is to try to use their hands instead of their mouths. They won't spend one second to really understand and communicate with their children. That's the real world out there. No matter how many times you tell them autism is not a disorder/disability/defect, one second later those parents are looking for diets, supplements, stem-cell therapy, you name it. And I am left wondering, how come I am the only parent in the world that has worked so hard making animation video clips to raise his children? Wow, the life of other parents surely is so much more comfortable than mine. Wow, I did not know you can raise a child by just opening your mouth. Wow, I must be so stupid to use my hands to make video clips, or to build elevator models, or to tape electronic push-button switches all over my house.


There is never a need to agree with anyone. Words don't count. Results do. Other people may keep arguing forever. They are welcome to waste their time.

Meanwhile, my children will just keep pushing forward. As I have always said: catch up if you can. You expect me to prioritize other children over my own children? Keep on dreaming.

The autistic mind is born to become a giant sequoia tree: solid, tall, with all its parts connected. You touch one single leaf, and the entire tree feels it.



The neurotypical mind is born to become an alfalfa field: broad, but weak in connection. What happens to one strand of grass doesn't affect another strand of grass far away.



If you let alfalfa grass raise a sequoia tree, what you will end up having is a midget bonsai tree. Unfortunately, that is what our society is doing with 95+% of our autistic children.

Ok I think I understand a bit better now.

Does kind of seem that is the way with a lot of people, in one ear and out the other. And I suppose it can be very frustrating when you feel you have good and useful things to teach...but people keep just missing the point.

I probably would not fully agree that autism isn't at all a disability/disorder, I mean I feel my having autism has certainly caused some challenges people without it don't have. Though I think the idea of disability should just be used to encourage support for people with autism to develop rather than decide they're hopeless and can't develop...and with the current way of things for those of us who struggle with employment it helps to have it labeled as a disability so you can get SSI.

I like that toilet story, that is a good example of the right approach...you saw he was interested in that and that it could be a great learning opportunity for him. Some parents might just think 'oh cute he's interested, but he doesn't understand.' which is quite wrong for sure.

I mean one sad thing I recall is I once met this autistic kid, child of some family friend on my dads side or something. He knew quite a bit about dinosaurs and so I was talking to him like he was a capable, smart kid. Then his mom said he was autistic and didn't really know anything or something to that effect, like she couldn't see anything more than the autism. I hope maybe she has changed her tune but there is a good chance I will never know, so I can only hope.

Is your disability caused by underdevelopment, or is it caused by autism?

This is a very important point: underdevelopment is one thing, autism is another thing altogether. The one has nothing to do with the other. Autism does not cause problems. Underdevelopment does.

After I taught my son to do long division by drawing missiles, I paused to think and it gave me shivers. I mean, what if I had not intervened? Who else in the whole world would have been able to teach him? My son is extremely smart. But no one else in the world knows how to teach him.

If my son did not have me, what would have happened to him? That's right, he would have become underdeveloped ... just like most of the children on the spectrum. He would probably have remained non-verbal until today.

I have discussed a case of a boy playing with sand before: https://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=378475&p=8326648. I mean, the boy has a good special interest. But the parents just let the boy play with sand, and never used his interest to expand his skill set. That's how autistic children become underdeveloped.



Autism is never about "learning disability." It's all about "teaching disability." The disability is on the other side. We only know one way of teaching. We teach by pushing, and we have come to believe that that is the only way of teaching. We don't realize there is another way of teaching, and that is to teach by pulling.

Is autism the problem in the development of my son? It surely is not. He was non-verbal, he was super-hyperactive, he had plenty of sensory issues, he had no eye-contact. None of those problems was an issue in my son's development. After he was developed, all those problems disappeared. My son is autistic and always will be. Yet he has no underdevelopment. If I have left my son with anyone else in the world, he would have become underdeveloped.

Your problem, your disability, did not come from autism. Your disability came from the fact that you were not developed properly. You were destined to become a giant sequoia tree, but you were raised by an alfalfa grass society.

It is all to easy to blame something else. Yeah, so easily for parents to blame on vaccines. So easy for autists to blame on autism. The problem is, once you find a perfect excuse, you stop learning, you stop acquiring skills, you give up. You look down on yourself. You think the only solution is medication.

And that is the saddest part. Because, deep down, burried inside your brain, you have a powerful engine. You still have it there. The autistic brain has excess connections. But once a person loses their fighting will, all is lost.

See, some people on the spectrum receive free money and don't need to work. But guess what they do with their lives? They vegetate. Instead of learning skills, they spend their waking hours talking about politics. And then they whine about their disability. Give me a break. That's the saddest part about treating autism as a disability. People stop learning, people stop acquiring skills. They use all their waking hours in meaningless activities. As a taxpayer, I surely don't want to see my money go feeding parasites.

There you go. Writing down brand names on toilet bowls was more effective than years of speech therapy. Toilets ... who would have thought they were so educational? Ha ha. Me writing down a few letters, beats other parents talking to their children for decades.



For people that know me, they probably know I don't make up stories. Here are some past postings from 2014 and 2016, where I described toilets and my son learning to speak:

https://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=271112&p=6382610&hilit=+Gerber#p6382610
https://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=322400&p=7203160&hilit=+Gerber#p7203160
https://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=329492&p=7302558&hilit=+Gerber#p7302558

Most of those moms have disappeared from the forum, which is a good thing. When people don't keep a cool head and use rational thinking, their children suffer and get nowhere. People always think: "Nah nah nah, I don't need to listen to any of your words." Guess what? They had their chance, and they have decided to condemn their children to underdevelopment. Is that my fault? Nahh ... it's their choice. People make choices. People live with the consequences of their choices.