What would human society be like if the majority were Autistic?

Mental Health Services would collapse completely because non-autistic people would be more likely to need help. A greater percentage of (non-autistic) mental health professionals would be on long term sick leave.

Whilst I agree that small talk between ND's and NT's can be awkward, I think in reality it would be less so as we'd have all grown up with a different way of communicating. I think ND's would start with something more neutral like 'It looks like its going to hot today?', which would lead either to someone replaying with a flat, 'Yes', or they'd be expanding into 'Yes it does, I hope I have enough water in my water butt to water my garden', there are many conversational avenues that could come out of this, or the bus could come and it would end there.

TheCatWoman said:

I think we would still have small talk,

But is "small talk" the same for NTs and NDs?

I looked up what small talk is, and found that it's recommended that you start with a neutral topic like the weather. We've discussed this topic recently, but in terms of sensory difficulties caused by the heatwaves - I think NT small talk would be less personal, until they got to know someone well. Here are some examples given of how to do small talk about the weather, with possible replies from an autistic person in brackets:

 "Lovely day, isn't it?" ( "No, my neighbour's kids are screaming and my wife wants a divorce")

 "Looks like rain's in the forecast" ( Well, the pressure is falling and the humidity rising)

 "Did you order this beautiful weather?" ( Eh? Weather isn't a thing you can order!)

It advises to skip talking about books or movies the other person hasn't read or seen, but we encourage each other to talk about these things to give us ideas what to read or watch.

It explains small talk like this: "Small talk is about building a bridge between you and another person. It doesn't matter so much what you talk about, but rather that you start talking in the first place." But I find talking about trivia boring, then my mind starts to wander and I can't remember what the other person has said. I would rather they talked about something they really have an interest in, even if I haven't had the same interest before, because I could learn something - unless it's sport or celebrities that is!

Broadly speaking I think the world would become more efficient.  "Special interests" would thrive so tech and science would evolve quicker for example.  Art for art sake would be more widely celebrated.  Emotional honesty would increase.  The world would be a calmer place over all.

But spontaneity might go down and although crisis planning and prep would be better the potential for panic if things go wrong might go up.  Social flexibility would go down and ironically there might end up some really horribly rule based regimes.

Nurotypicals would be brought in for specialised tasks - like lying, Or maybe more fairly in roles where being able to manage bits of the world where lots of people and stimulus was unavoidable.  I worry that neurotypical people would be siloed and put upon the same way neurodivergent people are now - the ethics of the majority regretfully seem to replicate in whatever society humanity comes up with.  It's a human tendency to use the majority experience as the definition of "normal".

However if the world were flipped now I hope that the logic of enshrining "double empathy" in public understanding, legislation and how society was set up would be understood by the now "in charge" autistic community.  Emotional or social intuiton would be allowed of course but not biased towards - systematised and pattern based intuiton would perhaps dominate.  It would probably be the neurotypical people at highest risk of burning out - but hopefully the autistic people would be logical and empathetic enough to see the pattern and do something about it.

I think we would have the same problem we have now just the other way round, in that the majority rules.

There would still be conflict, the non autistics would replace us as the minority maybe getting mentally unwell because they don’t fit in, they think and process differently to the majority, confused with the autistic world they are living in, can’t bare the silence, experiencing it as a form of torture. would we have compassion for non autistics or would they annoy us. We would still have bad apples to deal with in our autistic cart.

where would you place a non autistic in an autistic world, what could they bring to the autistic table?

I have thought that anything that lives, is driven to survive by searching for the fundamentals to achieve that. It makes more sense for humans to have differing ways or brain systems to approach this problem. It’s not necessarily survival of the fittest as we are led to believe maybe it’s survival of the entire group.

It’s impossible for autistics to be non autistic and vice versa. Don’t we stand a better chance with both? If you look there is evidence of us all over the place, throughout history. We have always been there.

The problem for me is the idea that we are a minority, deficient somehow. Are we? I think we are more likely to be of equal measure or there abouts.  Like day and night, hot and cold two opposite sides of the same coin. Can’t have one without the other. 

Christ I’ve gone off a bit on this one.

Oh I absolutely realise it would not go how it has in my head but one can dream. Haha.

I wonder whether people would struggle with change as much if the majority of people were aware of the difficulty. I know for myself and many I know, the problem with change is not being warned or given a sufficient amount of information. I think people would be much better at ensuring this happened. I always manage it better if someone just explains why.

I don't think innovation would stop but I do think there'd be more than one camp of people. Those for and those against at least. I think a lot of the innovations that happen are thought up by neurodivergent people because they think differently. But there would also be people that were rigidly against it. I think that will always be the way. I do wonder if we need to stop being so innovative at some point. As useful as things like the internet are, tech etc is becoming increasingly dangerous. The better the tech gets, the better the criminals get. I do wonder whether we will go too far one day. I may have taken this off at a complete tangent but oh well.

Being AuDHD myself I think my own brain is already a war - it doesn't agree with itself, let alone anyone else.

People would actually communicate rather than dancing around the point. People would be genuine rather than fakeness.

Expecto_Patronum said:

Information sharing would be significantly better and expectations for different situations would be made very clear.

The flip side of this is that there would be detailed manuals about how to do almost everything which cover every possible eventuality so we would take many times longer to read the guide than do the task.

I wonder if innovation would stop too because of those who cannot cope with change? Would we have to do this so as not to offend them?

It would be interesting to see how those with autism and a need for organisation and structure would co-exist with the auDHD people - would we end up in civil war?

This scenario has as many twists as a slinky

Information sharing would be significantly better and expectations for different situations would be made very clear. The use of metaphors etc would likely reduce.

Restaurant menus would be completely different. Dishes would probably be defaulted to plain with the option to add various different things for those that like it. Things like chicken nuggets and chips would become an option on the adult menu.

There would be more signage around to warn people of sensory difficulties such as noise and smells so that people that struggle with that could avoid it (I have actually seen this in a zoo and thought it was brilliant for inclusivity.

Job interviews would be completely different. You'd be told the questions in advance for processing time. You wouldn't sit in such an intimidating way with it being you Vs the interview panel. 

The education system would be completely different. Smaller classes. Sound proofed classrooms. More quiet spaces particularly for break and lunch. More individualised learning.

I could probably keep going. I love this concept. I know in reality it wouldn't be like we are imagining. But it's nice to think about.

Sadly, the majority being autistic wouldn't make a difference. It would only matter if the rich and powerful were also autistics. That just seems to be how the world works these days, sadly.

Maybe the regs would be different?

Maybe we wouldn't have such a huge fashion indusry? Maybe clothes would be more homemade, or made by small local companies.

Maybe we'd be routinely using different fibres for our clothing, we always think of, wool, silk and linen and cotton, but they're not the only fibres fabric can be made from, we could use things such as nettle, hemp and probably others too.

Maybe we'd not be so dependent on oil for fabrics? Would we even have an oil industry?

Would we ever have used coal? Its hard work to get out of the ground and it smells, Elizabeth I was famous for hating the smell of coal and refused to have it used in her rooms.

I think the world would smell better, more natural and less artificially perfumed.

I've met a few very competitive ND people so I think things like social status might still be around, but maybe manifest differently.

As autistics we're still all individuals with our like and dislikes, maybe society would be split into those who's thinking is very black and white and those who's isn't?

I wonder how health care would work? Obviously not as it doe's now, I don't think we'd have big pharma, but I do think we'd have more holistic practitioners. What would really be interesting would be how we deal with those with physical disabilities or with disabilities very different from what is now our own? Would we all "speak" sign language? How would we deal with those with visual problems who would need sound to engage in society?

Homebird said:

I don't understand why clothes that are 100percent cotton have synthetic labels which then need removing.

These are some of the reasons why it happens:

It is mostly down to the cost of the labels themselves. I used to be involved in garment manufacture and had to deal with everything from sourcing the materials to the tooling required to make them and training the staff in how to make them the way they were designed (my wife was a fashion designer and I was useful with this technical aspect of the business).

Labels cost about 5-10p for polyester if memory serves and they need to be correct for the fabrics in the garment, have the correct proportions of each fabric listed, have the appropriate cleaning instructions and have the sizing details present.

Choosing a different, softer fabric like silk costs multiples of this and the printing often fades faster for some reason so you have a higher production cost and a poorer aftermarket perception of the product.

The laws about garment sales dictate these labels must be present and it also helps manufacturers protect themselves from numpties who stick a silk blouse in the washing machine on a regular cycle and complain when it gets damaged.

Spray printing the labels works on durable, low transparency garments but it is far from cheap to have this facility in a smallish factory.

All those changes you have suggested would be wonderful.

I really like the idea of bowing instead of shaking hands. It shows respect for a person so in that sense it’s more meaningful than shaking hands.

I would like homes to be equipped on all sides with outside decibel readers that are connected to government departments. If the noise reaches a certain level over a defined period, the police would be alerted to attend the scene.

The labels comment is interesting. I don't understand why clothes that are 100percent cotton have synthetic labels which then need removing.

If consumables were geared towards people with sensitivities to things like seems, lables and fabrics, then maybe we'd have more things to choose from and would have more variety in our clothes? How much of the sameness in what people choose to wear, is because if we find something we like, that fits, and is comfortable we buy half a dozen or so of the same thing and have to hope they don't wear out before we have to find the next lot of clothes?

I think we would still have small talk, if you look at discussion here a lot of them are what could be considered small talk, we talk about fruit that goes off, tv programs, podcasts, gadgets and recipes. I think small talk might change a bit, sharing small snippets about our special interests for example.

I think we'd work as much and probably more of us would work, just because things would be set up in a way that suits us. Maybe we'd have less direct capitalism, although I'm sure the Musks of this world would still exist, and more co-operatives, mutuals and shared ownership models. Maybe everyone would have more than one type of work? A paid job and one thats more socially useful and satisfying?

I wonder if we'd need less therapists? It seems that so many of our problems are caused by a world that dosen't fit us, if it did fit then maybe we'd have fewer problems and we'd be having this conversation about needy NT's?

It's quite hard to fully imagine how different an austistic world would be, as if we were the dominant neurotype then we'd have created systems to suit as right from the start of societies developing and these "adjustments" would be built in. We'd have had 10,000 years plus to build societies, the world would look different, but by how much I'm unsure.I think there would still be competition and competitive stuff, I know some autists are very competitive and they might be the majority and people like me who aren't and don't see the need for it would still be outsiders?

It's interesting to think of what wouldn't have been developed as much as what would, would we still have had an industrial revolution? How would it have been different? Would we be as environmentlly aware as we are now or would it never have been nessercary?

I wonder if the world would be a kinder place? I would hope it would be more gentle towards other humans but also animals and the ecosystem system as a whole. I don’t know. 

It would be interesting to consider if the economy could continue to work in this situation.

While lower workplace stress would help, the challenge of getting so many different, spiky personality types to co-exist would be significant, workplace productivity would be much lower and the overhead of sick leave due to stress difficult for employers to bear.

We do not consume entertainment, clothes and "stuff" in anything like the way NTs do so the whole retail market would be a different landscape. Demand would most likely plummet although demand for services like therapists would skyrocket.

Lotus said:

Emergency services: emergency vehicle sirens would be quieter. Police would use drones to patrol their areas. Hospitals might have all single rooms, not shared wards, with internet access available to all patients.

This would lead to a much higher demand on the public "purse" to provide all these as well as the increased demand on therapy services, so tax would need to rise significantly from a much smaller workforce (since only around 20% of autists are in work if I recall correctly). Tax would need to be much higher.

The thought experiment is an interesting one, but we are not the most productive element of society and have much greater needs than most so finding a way to balance all this would be quite a prospect.

There would be less emphasis on social status, especially in regard to competing with others by acquiring the latest trendy stuff.

Change would be slower. It would hopefully be less noisy.

Group behaviour would be rarer.

Communication would be more direct.

You can understand why many autistic people feel this world is not made for them!

I well know what you mean, having suffered the effects of noise when staying in hospital several times over the past several years.

And you're right about not being able to sleep when sharing a space with several others who have personal habits that, while they don't intentionally mean any harm, can be insufferable! I did have a couple of procedures done privately but they were very brief visits, and other patients weren't really an issue. And at night, nothing stops in terms of patient care so if it's not other patients making noises, it's nurses monitoring people, which is fair enough but does not help getting a night's sleep.

And then there's the constant beeping of electronic monitoring equipment...