Genes for autism are extremely old. Autism was originally adaptive for living alone (when food was scarce). More recently (like 200K-5K years ago), autism was useful in the contexts of small tribes. Neanderthals were supposedly more autistic, but were eradicated by the more social homo sapiens.
Without any way of justifying my idea and mainly formed by the experience of living alongside non human mammals, I suspect that the autism reveals the default mammal brain. I wonder at how this has never been seriously researched, as we surely cannot be the only humans to have pondered this?
Have you read Jared Resers Solitary Forager Hypothesis? He does mention that most mammals are solitary animals, so yeah you might consider it the default.
It can be improved a lot. I score just over the autistic threshold, so it works most of the time. But the questions are open to interpretation and high functioning people might pass. Not as comprehensive as a questionnaire based on this checklist might be.
On the AQ, males score 17, females score 15 and autistic people score 32 on average. The gap between men and women should be much larger. Men are way more autistic than women.
Thats not a genetic trait though. And it could be skewed because high functioning autists dont always get diagnosed. And its really only a recent phenomenon.
In HG times autists were obviously quite successful which is why they are still around. Even in Victorian England life would have been significantly easier.
It was quieter (no cars), it was less bright (no electricity), it was cold (England), it was patriarchal so society was more logical, it was meritocratic (un woke) so you can say the truth with less repercussion, there was no temptation (no porn or yoga pants, no sugar or videogames).
Its only clown world + modern cities in which autists really struggle.
Without any way of justifying my idea and mainly formed by the experience of living alongside non human mammals, I suspect that the autism reveals the default mammal brain. I wonder at how this has never been seriously researched, as we surely cannot be the only humans to have pondered this?
Have you read Jared Resers Solitary Forager Hypothesis? He does mention that most mammals are solitary animals, so yeah you might consider it the default.
No, not until you pointed me in his direction. I will read his paper, thank you.
what do you think of the autism spectrum quotient test by baron-cohen? https://psychology-tools.com/test/autism-spectrum-quotient
is it an fairly reliable indicator of autism or more just some gimmicky online test?
It can be improved a lot. I score just over the autistic threshold, so it works most of the time. But the questions are open to interpretation and high functioning people might pass. Not as comprehensive as a questionnaire based on this checklist might be.
On the AQ, males score 17, females score 15 and autistic people score 32 on average. The gap between men and women should be much larger. Men are way more autistic than women.
By the way, another aspect of autism you could have added in is the sexual one; autism is maybe a significant hindrance in the mating market: https://nuancepill.com/is-autism-the-real-black-pill/
Thats not a genetic trait though. And it could be skewed because high functioning autists dont always get diagnosed. And its really only a recent phenomenon.
In HG times autists were obviously quite successful which is why they are still around. Even in Victorian England life would have been significantly easier.
It was quieter (no cars), it was less bright (no electricity), it was cold (England), it was patriarchal so society was more logical, it was meritocratic (un woke) so you can say the truth with less repercussion, there was no temptation (no porn or yoga pants, no sugar or videogames).
Its only clown world + modern cities in which autists really struggle.
thanks for the answer