Could autism be a product of evolution?
I Ain’t Your Momma
High functioning people with autism seem to have many insights into mathematics and technology, while their social skills are lacking. As we depend on each other less and less and become more anti social is it possible that our genes pick up on this and are producing less social offspring?
Wow. Interesting. Although doesn’t technology make us even more dependent on each other, in a way? So much expertise is required to keep it going, but we don’t need anyone’s expertise to know how to have an in-person conversation. It is an intriguing idea though, since the rate of autism is rising so fast (or is it just being overdiagnosed like ADHD? I don’t know, really.) I’m still inclined to think that some environmental agent is causing the increased rates, or that the statistics are being inflated by overdiagnosis.
we got less social over the course of 100 years or so, i assume. that’s about 3 generations. i am not very sure whether humans can adapt, retard or progress with such a narrow window of time. although i have thought something similar to yours.
Almost everything in evolution is a bad idea, because evolution doesn’t think. It just lets us suffer and die for its incognizant mistakes. Yes, I’m certain that autism is caused by mutations at a genetic level. We’re a social species, though, fast becoming caste in the same manner as insects. Whether or not we become less social is ultimately up us. If autistic people die out, and fail to reproduce as a result of their lack of social skills, then that will not be the manner in which evolution moves forward.
Personally, I think we’re going to have more of a de-evolution than an evolution with our current societal structure. Intelligent people aren’t usually what regular people look for in a mate. Such useful mutations are excellent for the species, but bad for the individual. It’s a shame, really.
No, I think if it was a product of evolution it would be a gradual process that would be seen in all infants. Like the way that the average height is taller than 100 years ago. It is more likely that is a genetic defect that is slowly increasing because of the number of people with the condition having children of their own…
I think we can only hope that autism is the future.
Evolution doesn’t work that way.
There is no “goal”- humans and all other living things are affected by their environment and by chance mutation.
Changes that are “beneficial” tend to allow the carrier to pass on that benefit to further generations, ones that are neutral or harmful will not.
Any such changes take place over many hundreds of thousands of years so would be undetectable within the short span of current human knowledge.
I personally think that autism is a product of either evolution, as you say, or mabye it is an indirect product of evolution because people have made the world so dirty that the chemicals are affecting people’s brains.
id say its kinda the opposite. evolution is based on over-all characteristics. its for the better. weak mutations and abnormalties dont make the grade so they wouldnt be selected and carried on. id say the stopping of evolution due to technology has made us weaker where it matters, our bodies and stronger where it doesnt matter, our brains. i dont think we should be thinking this way and trying to force unneccesary higher brain fuctions has led to our disfunctions. almost like yea our brains can handel this but only if we shift the balance. so we lose physical strengh for mental strengh. and along the way probelms occured and all these mental disorders popped up. evolution is a very specific process that only applied to nature. there is no technology evolution. there isnt any type of evolution other than natural evolution. people blur the meaning when they use it out of context.
No, autism is not a product of evolution. Evolution does not drive mutation. It is the other way around: Mutation drives evolution.
Autism, just like any other genetic mutation, creates a possible branch in evolution tree. The keyword is “possible”. If the environment (society) supports autistic individuals, autism gene gets passed to the offsprings, then the autistic human population increases. This creates a minor branch off of human species.
IF (somehow) the environment supports autistic population more than non-autistic one, then non-autistic humans could become minority, lose appeals, and then extinct. This is a BIG IF, tho. But, that is indeed one possible evolution outcome. A more likely outcome is that the environment supports both so both autistic and non-autistic humans coexist just fine.
Teenage abstractions cannot substitute for the reality that a service economy is more sependent on human teamwork than ever and that autism is probably caused by a combination of pathogen and susceptibility.
If so, we’re screwed.
Most autistic people don’t have those extra abilities, only a very small minority that has been exaggerated by an unbalanced media. Most of them, quite simply, lack social abilities, and have a high concentration that makes them proficient in detailed areas such as piano tuning, machining, or other high end crafts that anyone can do given enough time and practice.
The surge in autism likely has more to do with several factors that can pertain to evolution in some way.
1) Toxicity. Just as asthma is an epidemic where it used to be less than 1% of the population, so is autism. Environmental factors are the main cause.
2) Hyper-industrialism. As society’s demand for intense social grid system puts a stress on natural human interaction in a way that we are not readily prepared to adjust to.. people lapse into chaotic states of sensory overload and deprivation. This is how war vets with PTS behave, as did many holocuast survivors, and even victims of mild stroke have similar symptoms..synaptic overload and lapse.
3) Not to be overlooked… The cash cow industry of behavioural science. “Every child has a disability…Every child needs expensive therapy and expensive drugs to keep big pharma and the theraputic industrial complex going strong”. Children who are highly introverted but otherwise not autistic risk being run through the conveyor belt by parents who’ve been scared to death from what they hear from the snake oil racket.
Evolutionary or not, it is, in a way, an adaptation to environment in all of the true cases of autism and their surge in frequency. But it shouldn’t be mistaken for a turn to advancement.
No-Most autism is neurological damage caused by our dangerous and unnecessary vaccine policy.
It’s dangerous and unwise in the extreme to romanticize preventable vaccine injuries.
Autism is treatable and reversible.