The Geek Syndrome
Dec. 17th, 2001 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anotheranonInteresting story about how Asperger's Syndrome/autism rates seem to be going up. Particularly in Silicon Valley and other tech-job hubs. The author suggests that the information revolution offers slightly autistic people greater opportunities to succeed on their own in society and greater opportunities to meet others like themselves - and to marry and have kids. Given that autism is believed to be at least partly genetically based, what happens is that autism is being passed on more frequently and there are a rising number of kids born with mild to severe autism.
Its just interesting food for thought....are the techies of today breeding the Mentats of tomorrow? And would it be worth it to trade the ability to read social cues for the ability to have enormous technical/mathematical talent (in the case of Asperger's patients)?
I'm sure I'm missing a lot of subtleties here - I actually know little about psychology or what it must be like to live in a very social society without any ability to be social (I constantly bitch about my own shyness, but that isn't the same thing). I guess its just interesting to consider.
Its just interesting food for thought....are the techies of today breeding the Mentats of tomorrow? And would it be worth it to trade the ability to read social cues for the ability to have enormous technical/mathematical talent (in the case of Asperger's patients)?
I'm sure I'm missing a lot of subtleties here - I actually know little about psychology or what it must be like to live in a very social society without any ability to be social (I constantly bitch about my own shyness, but that isn't the same thing). I guess its just interesting to consider.
