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What if everyone in the world had Aspergers?

qwerty
over 5 years ago

Imagine a hypothetical world, where everyone had Aspergers....

I wonder how that world will be like. There won't be a diagnosis, since everyone has it, it's normal.

But what I wonder most is whether it would be an easier or more difficult world to live in?

- Reasons why it may be easier - 

  • The way that you think will be similar to how other people think (very logical, caring a lot about rules, routines, etc.), so it will be a lot easier to understand each other. There will be fewer misunderstandings among people. The world will be orderly, and there won't be problems due to people forming gangs, cliques, alliances against people just because. There will also be a lot of people who share similar intense interests as you (e.g., science, math, art, etc.), so conversations will be fun and educational. People will be very aware of sensory issues, so there won't be people wearing strong perfumes, smoking, playing loud music in open public.

- Reasons why it may be harder - 

  • People may still misunderstand what other people are feeling, even though they have the same condition. Since Aspergerians care a lot about being correct, if a difference in opinion happens, they may engage in long ever-lasting debates over months, causing both parties lots of frustration, instead of letting it go. People might not be able to tell the difference of someone accidentally making a mistake and hurting them, or if someone deliberately hurt them. People have stimming behaviors that while understandable could possibly affect another person (e.g., if someone stims by making random vocal noises it might cause another person with noise-sensitivity a lot of pain). 

What do you think?

  • over 5 years ago in reply to Deleted user

    Yeah, that's kind of what I have thought too, as there are still differences the the way we think, and different ideals may clash. I think your analysis and reasoning is very well done.

    Maybe there might be some sensory rooms that people can go to, just like visiting a restaurant, if they want to experience a certain smell or noise?

    How about a slightly different hypothetical question: if everyone is exactly like you, would the world be an easier or more difficult place to live in?

    So, in this question, we can eliminate the sensory differences. And people's preferences for how stringent rules should be will be the same. But will there be other clashes? Or things that may be harder to accomplish? 

  • over 5 years ago

    What a fascinating thought experiment!

    Firstly, if my suspicions are correct, it would be like my home life (wife and I are both seeking diagnosis!). No pointless traditions, honest answers to "does my bum look big in this", and everyone responsible for their own feelings (once they find out what they are, that is!).

    But for the whole world, yes many things would run like clockwork and there would probably be less stress generally (?) but I suspect that not having NT people around would actually cause some difficulty, though I'm struggling to think of what they would be now that I've suggested it!

  • over 5 years ago

    An interesting thought.

    I'm not sure that we would all understand each other. As much as we have similar difficulties etc there is still a massive range of the ways we think etc.

    Although some aspies are very stringent about rules etc. There are others that just don't understand rules at all.

    There would be an awareness of sensory issues certainly but would the different sensory issues clash? For example some people really like certain scents that others would absolutely hate.

    If that was "normal" for everyone, would there be any understanding of it. Any awareness of it. Any support? 

    As much as I like the idea and I feel people would be far more accepted if the world was all Aspies. I'm not sure it would be quite as magical as we would like to think.

  • over 5 years ago

    A world of Aspies?  We'd be travelling the galaxies by now and Windows 1.0 would be just awesome.

  • over 5 years ago

    I often think about this.

    Maybe there are housing estates where only autistic people live?