Autism, Fluid Intelligence and Evolution

[Daniel]

I came across this through my interest in Human Design, which I'm sure no one here has heard of, and that's fine.

I found this Facebook group, The Tao of Autism, which had posted this YouTube video, Is Autism the Next Stage of Human Evolution?

Curious to see responses!

My favorite bits:

• Our numbers are growing, and eventually we'll be the majority
• "One of the hallmarks, especially of people with Asperger's, high-functioning autism and so on, is this higher level of fluid intelligence, which is the kind of intelligence we use when we problem-solve...it's really our ability to figure out things when we don't have the information we need, something new and novel... gives us a very unique pointer as to how this thing is gonna go down..."

Here's the link to the full video:
How to Use Gamification Engagement as a Strategy - FORA.tv

 

[Nitro]

I came across this through my interest in Human Design, which I'm sure no one here has heard of, and that's fine.

I found this Facebook group, The Tao of Autism, which had posted this YouTube video, Is Autism the Next Stage of Human Evolution?

Curious to see responses!

My favorite bits:

• Our numbers are growing, and eventually we'll be the majority
• "One of the hallmarks, especially of people with Asperger's, high-functioning autism and so on, is this higher level of fluid intelligence, which is the kind of intelligence we use when we problem-solve...it's really our ability to figure out things when we don't have the information we need, something new and novel... gives us a very unique pointer as to how this thing is gonna go down..."

Here's the link to the full video:
How to Use Gamification Engagement as a Strategy - FORA.tv

my reply to this is that the non-verbal autistic may have already arrived at the next level which even those of us who are on a higher rung of the ladder may not understand.

 

[Daniel]

my reply to this is that the non-verbal autistic may have already arrived at the next level which even those of us who are on a higher rung of the ladder may not understand.

"Where we're going, we won't need roads..."

Hmm...

 

[Daniel]

Was just thinking... Imagine a world where we knew that everyone else was also on the spectrum! Where we have the typical neurology!

 

[Nitro]

Was just thinking... Imagine a world where we knew that everyone else was also on the spectrum! Where we have the typical neurology!

in my picture folders,I have one named Aspieville,like Hollywood,only better

 

[Tarragon]

Ok, I watched the whole video....

Seems to me that this guy is just hyping marketing techniques that address the "new generation" of consumers and employees.

Its not that the population is all becoming autistic, its that with technology people are becoming dependant in it to get their kicks, and the old way of entertainment and "engagement" with society is dying off.

It still smacks of "how can we exploit the masses" to me.

Things like that never change...

 

[Peter A.]

Interesting, but I can't agree, largely due to the fact that my 'fluid intelligence', as he calls it, is practically non-existent; I'm hopeless at solving problems. I also noticed the graph had the jigsaw puzzle logo of 'Autism Speaks' within it, and I simply can't take anything they claim seriously anymore.

 

[gregmcph]

Well, the Straights still breed a whole lot more.

 

[MyGreyMatter]

My GOD, what is this crap?!

Fluid Intelligence is playing with ideas without facts. This is the default condition, people have to be trained to discard stuff without evidence.

Evolution: Basically Natural Survival Selection & Reproduction Selection

As for Autism being an Evolutionary product, for that to be true, it has to help us survive & reproduce. Has this guy not noticed that Autistic people have trouble making friends let alone getting dates or laid? Sure if Autism translates to highly paid jobs, that might help us attract sexual partners. When you have brilliant ideas & **** communication, you have to be already rich to put your ideas into practice. I'm pretty angry about this drivel.

 

[Loomis]

Another name for "fluid intelligence" would be what it has always been called: intuition. Aspies usually do not have a full measure of common sense but I suspect we may have more than our share of intuition. Think of the stereotype of the absent minded professor.

"Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason... Intuition is thus often conceived as a kind of inner perception, sometimes regarded as real. Cases of intuition are of a great diversity; however, processes by which they happen typically remain mostly unknown to the thinker, as opposed to the view of rational thinking. Intuition provides views, understandings, judgements, or beliefs that we cannot in every case verify or justify... Some scientists have contended that intuition is associated with innovation in scientific discovery." (from Wikipedia)

Einstein, who is often mentioned as being on the spectrum, credited his intuition for his revolutionary ideas in Physics.

 

[Atay]

Was just thinking... Imagine a world where we knew that everyone else was also on the spectrum! Where we have the typical neurology!

We'd have a lot fewer reality TV shows, and no hair stylists.

 

[Nitro]

I watched the entire video as well,but got it from a different angle...my train of thought are led to believe that possibly the autistic mind is going thru evolution of the brain and not so much the body...as in any change ever,there will be some who get the gifts and others that do not until nature is finished with it's work...humans had to find fire before they figured out how to make their own...if that isn't a good example of evolution,then please explain evolution to me that only involves procreation of a species if that is your way of thinking...to view evolution that way seems flawed to me and narrow minded

 

[Daniel]

My GOD, what is this crap?!

Fluid Intelligence is playing with ideas without facts. This is the default condition, people have to be trained to discard stuff without evidence.

Evolution: Basically Natural Survival Selection & Reproduction Selection

As for Autism being an Evolutionary product, for that to be true, it has to help us survive & reproduce. Has this guy not noticed that Autistic people have trouble making friends let alone getting dates or laid? Sure if Autism translates to highly paid jobs, that might help us attract sexual partners. When you have brilliant ideas & **** communication, you have to be already rich to put your ideas into practice. I'm pretty angry about this drivel.

Ever consider that what's good for humanity right now is for people not to reproduce so much?

 

[Daniel]

Ok, I watched the whole video....

Seems to me that this guy is just hyping marketing techniques that address the "new generation" of consumers and employees.

Its not that the population is all becoming autistic, its that with technology people are becoming dependant in it to get their kicks, and the old way of entertainment and "engagement" with society is dying off.

It still smacks of "how can we exploit the masses" to me.

Things like that never change...

Yeah, I understand where you're coming from.

I'm a marketer by trade. Marketing, when it comes down to it, is about understanding your target market's needs and wants and meeting them. Because I wanted to have a job and make a decent living, I made my peace with business and went to school to learn how it works. I've discovered there are a lot of bad marketers out there who don't get it.

The business world has certainly earned its reputation for being exploitative.

 

[Tarragon]

Ever consider that what's good for humanity right now is for people not to reproduce so much?

Isn't it vaguely a pattern that the less educated reproduce more? Im not suggesting that uneducated people should be stopped from reproducing, but perhaps they should be educated and realise you don't need so many kids to feel that you have a purpose in life

But, a virus is designed to reproduce, and humans emulate the virus model so well....

 

[King_Oni]

My GOD, what is this crap?!

Fluid Intelligence is playing with ideas without facts. This is the default condition, people have to be trained to discard stuff without evidence.

Evolution: Basically Natural Survival Selection & Reproduction Selection

As for Autism being an Evolutionary product, for that to be true, it has to help us survive & reproduce. Has this guy not noticed that Autistic people have trouble making friends let alone getting dates or laid? Sure if Autism translates to highly paid jobs, that might help us attract sexual partners. When you have brilliant ideas & **** communication, you have to be already rich to put your ideas into practice. I'm pretty angry about this drivel.

Perhaps it would depend on with which people you mix and mingle?

From my own experience, the longest relationships I had were with either diagnosed on undiagnosed/suspected aspies.

Perhaps it's that the autistic person has issues making friends who are NOT on the spectrum and these people who cannot relate to their issues.

I can follow your logic, but you might just as well miss this little oversight.

Ever consider that what's good for humanity right now is for people not to reproduce so much?

Regardless on whether it's a response on the post I'm replying to above, this is one sentiment I can get behind. For a variety of reasons; a few being personal, and thus subjective, a few being more objective (overpopulation is a thing and so on).

 

[Daniel]

Isn't it vaguely a pattern that the less educated reproduce more? Im not suggesting that uneducated people should be stopped from reproducing, but perhaps they should be educated and realise you don't need so many kids to feel that you have a purpose in life

But, a virus is designed to reproduce, and humans emulate the virus model so well....

I see it as a matter of evolutionary pressure.

I also don't see humans as separate from the rest of the earth. I see us as every bit a natural part of this planet as the other animals, the vegetation, the rocks, and the lava underneath. And yes, the viruses, the bacteria, the parasites, and other stuff that can kill us.

Sure, other species go down as a by-product of what we do, but we wouldn't have the intelligence to understand this if we didn't have the experience of having got to this point in time. Species went extinct long before humans came along.

I like George Carlin's position as expressed in Jammin' in New York--the planet will be fine no matter what we do. It's our own asses (and our cushy nests) that are in trouble as the result of human ignorance!

(Jump to 50:30 for the part I'm referring to.)

 

[Daniel]

As for Autism being an Evolutionary product, for that to be true, it has to help us survive & reproduce. Has this guy not noticed that Autistic people have trouble making friends let alone getting dates or laid? Sure if Autism translates to highly paid jobs, that might help us attract sexual partners. When you have brilliant ideas & **** communication, you have to be already rich to put your ideas into practice. I'm pretty angry about this drivel.

I get that my ideas about evolution (and a lot of things) may be controversial and a deviation from the received wisdom on the subject, but as I see it, sexual reproduction is not the mechanism by which macro-level genetic change happens--it's the mechanism by which genes get passed on from a pair of individuals to their offspring.

Genes don't get passed on because the organism from which they came is the most fit for anything. They get passed on because sperm and egg got mixed together inside a woman and the resulting fetus wasn't aborted by artificial or natural means. You could pass your genes on because you're a rapist and your female victim has religious beliefs that preclude her from aborting pregnancies. I've seen genes get passed on because a woman was desperate to hang on to her boyfriend, so she poked holes in the condom (and the dude left her anyway).

Evolution isn't a mechanism to produce people who can do it more. It is simply the nature of the cosmos that things change as objects bang into each other and one thing follows another. And on our level, it's in the nature of heterosexual men and women to want to bang into each other.

I've also noticed (and it has been observed by others) that many of the female Aspies here on AC have partners! And I must say, there are some very fortunate children out there who will grow up with Aspie mothers who have a wonderful mixture of loving and logic like the lovely ladies of AspiesCentral. You don't have to be male to pass genes on.

I say this with the deepest empathy and understanding that it's frustrating for us guys who can't get laid despite wanting to, which would be me right now if I wanted to. In the full version of the video, the speaker observes that so-called "nerdiness" is less stigmatized than it's ever been; that's where he's coming from. When I was a kid, there wasn't this "nerd culture" with its own cachet.

And as King_Oni observes--there are indeed women out there on the spectrum and not on the spectrum who are actually compatible with male Aspies.

 

[Daniel]

I also noticed the graph had the jigsaw puzzle logo of 'Autism Speaks' within it, and I simply can't take anything they claim seriously anymore.

Regarding the statistics showing increased prevalence--I'm pretty sure Autism Speaks doesn't produce scientific studies; the numbers they cite, I would guess and it's not like I've personally vetted them, are those produced by the CDC's ADDM network. That seems to be the popular source.

I doubt Autism Speaks could produce anything other than offensive marketing materials!

 

[radasp]

Physical reproduction by individuals "goes nowhere" as far as influencing our species, that is unless two people create a child that has a mutation that just happens to be a positive response to a change in the environment. Isaac Newton had no children, but his ideas changed the lives of billions of humans, and defined a technological path that is still unfolding.

Also, Asperger's is not a legitimate diagnosis; there is no scientific evidence that a "normal" human exists average, typical, maybe) and in fact one cannot exist, because "normal" cannot be proven using scientific methods. Tests to "discover" Asberger's are designed to "reveal" a person who is pre-defined by psychologists - like saying Witches exist, making a list of "symptoms" and then finding people who match your pre-conceived "thing" called a Witch. All that can really be said is that there is a tiny minority of individuals who have a particular type of brain processing that is not socially directed, but self-directed, and who have an intense interest in how the world ACTUALLY WORKS.

I think that rather than being a "new" step in the evolution of Homo sapiens that Asperger individuals have a brain type that is a legacy of an early pre-social human, who HAD TO understand and respond to the physical environment in order to survive, and that social humans, have LOST the ability to be function in the natural environment or to survive at all without the structures of "civilization" to support them. What you don't use, you loose. Also it seems unlikely that a very recent evolutionary change would be scattered in people around the globe: One would expect a cluster of specific mutations in a small group in a specific location.

Actually, there is no conclusive evidence as to a genetic pattern or origin!