A good message overall- to fact check though- not necessarily true. There are a whole group of theories that postulate that many “developmental divergences” of the mind are in fact either originally survival adaptations or the lingering effects of such adaptations. There is a sort of core idea to most that the reason so many neurological variances remained in the gene pool isn’t because they somehow managed to “survive against the odds” but because those variances at times in human history may have been adaptations that actually gave people evolutionary advantages. “Autism spectrum” (AS) is one such cognitive state which has several theories that it may in fact be less a disorder than an evolved adaptation for survival success. One such theory holds that certain cognitive enhancements and differences in the way high functioning autistic minds are capable of generating neurons was a pathway to reproductive success. Another theory holds that AS was a sort of “parallel”…
.. evolution to the widely accepted view that “humans” evolved to be social because social humans were more successful. In this second theory, AS was an evolutionary advantage that would have given early humans many tools and traits to survive and thrive without relying on social groups. A reduction in ability for many soft social skills doesn’t matter much when one is primarily self sufficient and when solitary certain common behaviors and traits of high functioning autism would benefit survival. Tendencies to engage in and even enjoy repetitive tasks has an obvious benefit to survival in a pre industrial world when one realizes that things like hunting, foraging and gathering etc. and survival in general is a game of repetition. To that point, most survival training focuses strongly on the mental component of survival. Boredom and hopelessness are often two of the greatest challenges to long term solitary survival. Attention to detail and certain other traits common to autism could…
..also be of great benefit. This theory goes on to state that under certain conditions such as where population density is relatively low, early autistic humans may have had advantages as their traits may have led to things like increased stockpiling of supplies and provisions as well as a higher quality of living and security than their “nuerotypical” peers. This may have been appealing to any potential mates they came across, the traditional concept holds that human mating has always been somewhat rooted in one’s ability to provide for a mates survival and/or comfort.
The autism of the distance past may have been a bit different than what many think of today- and again to be clear we are not talking about low functioning autism where a person is essentially unable to provide self care. It is rare that evolutionary adaptation occurs as a massive single change. Usually it is a single gene or small number of genes that confer a certain smaller change. Over time and subsequent..
.. generations the genes are passed down and mixed with the partners genes. This can confer new and different changes or impact other genes in “positive” or “negative” ways. So early humans with autism likely wouldn’t have had “extreme” autism and the range of the spectrum is likely in large part a result of the unpredictable mingling of genes as the genes were passed down and changed over generations.
In the modern age Autism tends to be viewed as a disability so these types of theories may seem silly to many- but understand that what is a disability depends heavily on the society and environment you live in. Humans who had genetics and environments that fostered social interaction and success through it would create collaborative social groups that inevitably through strength of numbers woukd out thrive individuals. This concept is observable today-
we all may know or even be the person who doesn’t work well on a team and prefers to work alone and even does better work alone. A person working alone on a relatively simple project may be able to meet or exceed the efforts of a group working on a simple project. However, a very complex project like designing and building a quantum computer from scratch is likely a project that even the most gifted individual couldn’t beat a group at. Running a farm, a tool shop, a construction operation, walking 10 miles for water, fishing, hunting AND delivering and caring for children is probably going to be more productive or even only possible with a group right? At some point the scale or complexity of scope of tasks and time they require will necessitate many hands.
So social minded humans succeeded in survival, security, and thusly reproduction with a relatively high level of consistency because they lacked the ability to survive alone or realized that they could live to a higher standard as a group and that each individual in the group could probably have a better and more successful life in the group than alone. As these groups would grow and advance they would naturally outpace the ability to build and gather and perform other tasks which a single individual could achieve. This would also mean that over time of conflicts arose over land or resources etc- the groups of humans would gain the advantage over more solitary humans and thusly be able to assert control. As social groups became more important and humans became more numerous and one’s abilities to navigate a social landscape became more important to survival and your position in a community and thusly your ability to thrive and exert your will-
Autism would start to become seen as a disability because the effects on one’s ability to socialize would be impacted and the ability to socialize has generally become increasingly important thorough human history. We now live in an age where socialization is an essential part of most peoples lives beyond emotional needs. Getting a job, keeping a job, getting a decent wage and getting a raises or promotions generally has less to do with absolute ability and more to do with your ability to socialize. Many jobs have socialization, discussion, debate, the ability to convince others to do as you need or want, at their core. Wealth and power have long been linked to social skills but we now literally have social media celebrities who’s core skills are social appeal and engineering, and build empires on just their social skills. They influence culture and often hold disproportionate sway over public perceptions and opinions or through their social branding have companies or political…
.. involvement which allow them not only to thrive and exert their will but to have measures of power above the norm to shape the world the rest of us live in. One of the worlds richest men got there on a company which was founded purely to provide socialization. It is the case that many or most of the worlds wealthy people are in their positions less for for business acumen or skill than their abilities to work the social bonds and systems to manipulate others or exert their will. Being able to project the social image that others will find attractive or perceive a certain way, being able to appeal to Others emotions or to highlight the achievements others will place the most stock in etc.
So just as a fun fact- it isn’t necessarily true that humans in general or all humans are such intrinsically social creatures as is often believed. It is in fact quite possible that most humans happen to be social creatures simply because of the prolific breeding of those humans who evolved over time to be much more social and to require much more validation and social interaction.
The autism of the distance past may have been a bit different than what many think of today- and again to be clear we are not talking about low functioning autism where a person is essentially unable to provide self care. It is rare that evolutionary adaptation occurs as a massive single change. Usually it is a single gene or small number of genes that confer a certain smaller change. Over time and subsequent..
In the modern age Autism tends to be viewed as a disability so these types of theories may seem silly to many- but understand that what is a disability depends heavily on the society and environment you live in. Humans who had genetics and environments that fostered social interaction and success through it would create collaborative social groups that inevitably through strength of numbers woukd out thrive individuals. This concept is observable today-