Published on 12, July, 2020
”What if we are not odd, but Aspergers is the next step in evolution for humans?”
We are no less loving or empathetic than other humans. As someone once said, we perhaps feel too much.
So perhaps we evolutionary firsts!
I think that AS is a dead end in evolution like pterosaurs were. Modern day birds and bats are not related to or descended from pterosaurs. It is a clade that became completely extinct with no descendants. That tiny firecrest in the hedgerow is descended from theropod dinosaurs and is genetically closer to a T Rex than any pterosaur.
It's not looking likely that AS is an evolutionary dead end. First of all, because it seems to be pretty intrinsic genetically. Second, because it has no bearing on survival to sexual maturity. Last, it doesn't hinder the ability to find / consume food or other resources necessary for life.
It makes it harder to find a partner though, doesn't it?!
I like that ~ a world that’s already overpopulated with largely identical humans! I don’t think the world is overpopulated. Overpopulated for what?
Overpopulated for the other lifeforms we share the planet with and overpopulated for sustainable quality of human life.The vast majority of vertebrate biomass is now either human beings or their domesticated animals, and we're pushing both hunter-gatherer humans and our great ape cousins to the brink of extinction. The more humans, the more pollution and the less space, food and clean water and air for each. Check our Earth Overshoot Day, planetary boundaries and Population Matters. Why do you think the world might not have a chance?
And I say 'largely identical' on the basis that there have been bottlenecks in humans' recent evolutionary past and all Europeans are descended from a few thousand settlers during the glacials. By having children, we shouldn't get the idea that we're preserving any rare genetic heritage, autistic or not, and of all the reasons for human extinction, not having children is one of the least likely. But yes, cultural homogenisation, mass media and globalised Macdonalds also contribute to human uniformity at expense of biodiversity. So I have reasons to prefer being childless and to wish it were more common.
In return I was tickled by your 'hard work' sounds too much like hard work. In an ideal world work should be pleasurable, or not exist at all. On how Universal Basic Income (or Citizens' Income) might provide freedom and reduce discrimination for autistic people, see this essay by Dinah Murray.