Evolution Stumbles Forward
'In the past, solitude was a regular, and inevitable, aspect of human life. While traveling, working, or staying at home while others worked, most people were necessarily alone for long periods of time. Even the most compulsively sociable people often had the option of connecting with other humans only by means of reading, an activity that lends itself to pauses for extended contemplation, and they were otherwise forced to think by themselves, and hence to think for themselves.
All of this began to change in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when new forms of technology gave people more and more ways to stay in touch with the world. Two new forms of entertainment in the home, radio and television, demanded one's constant attention more insistently than books, and the interactive communication system of the telephone - and for a few, walkie-talkies and ham radio - made it easy for solitary individuals to spend hours talking with other people who were far away. The computer age brought even more ways to connect with others over long distances - e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, websites, blogs - and there has also emerged the ultimate facilitator of 24/7 contact with friends and family members, the cell phone. Today, if somebody chooses - and many people do so choose - they can spend virtually every waking moment intently connected to other human voices.
I observe the results of this new technology every day at the university campus where I work. The instant they step out of class, most students take out their cell phones and walk to their next destination engaged in constant chatter, or they put on their headphones to listen to their favourite songs, or they sit down with their laptops to surf the Net and check their e-mail. They never want to be alone, and they never have to be alone. And I pity them; for, if you incessantly listen to what the rest of the world thinks, you will always think precisely the way the rest of the world thinks.
In this new era, then, those with a natural inclination to avoid others and the world around them will have an advantage. People with Autism often don't want to have cell phones; they don't want to be constantly disturbed by other people. Unlike naturally sociable people who will feel compelled to take advantage of the many forms of communication now available, they will naturally prefer to eschew them. They may still prefer reading to watching movies or television. They may love to take long walks through natural settings, spending hours and hours comfortably alone with their own thoughts. Thus, with everyone else's minds incessantly connected to the zeitgeist of contemporary civilisation, those with Autism will become the people most likely to come up with brilliant new ideas, to create memorably distinctive works of art, to develop entirely new ways of looking at the world.
Perhaps, in a world where personal interactions become less and less important, those smiling, charismatic people who once rose effortlessly to the top of the ladder will find that their social skills have become obsolete, as employers no longer care about charm and instead would rather hire, and work from a distance with, people who manifest a strong ability to innovate and blaze new trails. Perhaps, a desire to constantly see and talk with other people will increasingly be viewed as a harmful atavism, as more and more people exhibit the traits of Autism and benefit from voluntarily isolating themselves most of the time. Perhaps, as advanced forms of artificial intelligence become significant participants in the human community, people who long for human contact will be disadvantaged while people with Autism - who traditionally preferred the company of machines to the company of people anyway - will get along just fine.
Whether people with Autism are pitiable victims or the vanguards of a new human species, of course, remains to be seen. But one thing is already evident: today, there exist growing numbers of people in our society who cannot and do not conform to conventional expectations regarding sociable human behaviour. I can only hope that the world will soon adopt tolerant attitudes and embrace these 'odd' people as loyal friends and capable workers, but that is something I cannot control.
What I can control, however, is my own life. And let me tell you, I'm tired of trying to pass for human, and I will no longer apologise for being what I am. So, I say this to the world: I am uneasy in social situations and I communicate that unease; I don't like to maintain eye contact; I always seem emotionally distant and detached. Please deal with it. If people don't like the way I am, then all one can say is that they're prejudiced, and that's their problem; it isn't mine.'
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(Adapted from an article in Locus Mag, originally written by Gary Westfahl)
