There must be a reason?

Wow, well this is a lot to digest. So in short, yes, is the answer I Thank you guys for posting.

Indeed that link is full of interesting theory on this. Also, heartening to know. However, a little scary that the popular who dominate will likely be blinkered to the potential of what autism gives us as a society

Points 1 through 4 in this article are the essence of my life experience for over half a century.  This is not the first time you have posted this link - and I will never tire of it.  Thank you again.

You know the sickle  cell anaemia gene is recessive? One copy of the gene doesn’t give you the disease. You need two for that. But one copy does give you a slight resistance to malaria.

autism is probably polygenic. It’s not one gene but combinations of genes that give you autism. Intelligence is also partly genetic and polygenic and research suggest there is a significant overlap between autism genes and genes that contribute to high intelligence.

so natural selection for intelligence is probably increasing the number of autism genes in the gene pool.

Here’s a stupidly over simplified example. Say hyper intelligence requires the red and blue gene. And autism requires the green and blue gene. Well even if autism is negatively selected for there will still be a big positive selection on the blue gene. And the green gene won’t die out because unless the blue gene becomes almost uniform there will be plenty of non autistic green gene carriers.

JT said:

Do you think it's the next wave of evolution?

Relatedly, and admittedly in what at first sight appear to be a juxtaposition. Or at least an overarching, vague analogy:

'Jaynes theorized that a shift from bicameral mentality marked the beginning of introspection and consciousness as we know it today. According to Jaynes, this bicameral mentality began malfunctioning or "breaking down" during the 2nd millennium BCE.

The Bronze age collapse of the 2nd millennium BCE led to mass migrations and created a rash of unexpected situations and stresses which required ancient minds to become more flexible and creative. Self-awareness, or consciousness, was the culturally evolved solution to this problem. This necessity of communicating commonly observed phenomena among individuals who shared no common language or cultural upbringing encouraged those communities to become self-aware to survive in a new environment. Thus consciousness, like bicameral mentality, emerged as a neurological adaptation to social complexity in a changing world.'

(On Professor Julian Jaynes' book 'The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind')

Language and metaphor (and, arguably, what might be called the Autistic mind?) perhaps constitute that 'next wave'. Who, after all, can truly tell? Granted, this speculation can appear somewhat ridiculous - the difficulties attendant to Autism as the herald of a new way of thinking? - but, in truth, so many unheralded and marginalised ways of thinking might be the birth-pangs of new thought and a new stage, if only allowed to flourish. Communication is the key that unlocks potential; and perhaps one of the notable features of Autism is our wrestling with the difficulties of communication. Learning an alien or new 'language', or communicating either, is often a struggle to overcome and a communion difficult to achieve.

Thank you for sharing this 

I feel that we exist for a purpose. Men and Women of faith tend to be lone wolves. Rejection in the past caused us to break under pressure. 

For Autism, I believe that finding a way to cope with the big wide world is more important than public displays of affection by Mothers. 

We need time, to ourselves, to refuel our tank. We can't go at high-intensity for long. 

I like this article. I think it explains it perfectly: autcollab.org/.../