Moloth - The M-Forums

this lady is fascinating. i've never heard of her before today, but i've seen some of the effects she's had on the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin

an interview:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/article295.html

Temple Grandin:Well the thing is, with a little bit of autism, you know, if you have mild autism, you'll get genius like einstein. Too much of autism, you're going to have a severely handicapped child who's going to remain nonverbal and if you don't do things like aba, they're not going to function at all. There is no way with any treatment they have that you're going to cure autism. There's basic abnormalities in brain development.

I would think in an ideal world, you don't want to have people who cant talk, but on the other hand, you definitely don't want to get rid of all of the autism genetics becvause if you did that, there'd be no scientists. After all, who do you think made the first stone spear back in the caves? It wasn't the really social people.

If we didn't have a little of the autism trait we wouldn't even have this building here today with all the electricity in it, your video camera, powerpoint shows... None of this stuff would even exist.

If evolution is based on being well-adapted to your environment (and, to a degree, it is), then high level autistics are quite well adapted to our 21st century Information Age. I find it fascinating that those in the professional and the business world are starting to see high-level autistics as being a valuable human resource. I dunno... it just makes me feel good to see people succeed due to their natural talents and strengths; to see people being constructive and useful in life, because of, not in spite of, their differences.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses. the trick is to capitalize on the former and compensate for the latter.