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/sci/ - Science & Math


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11102325 No.11102325 [Reply] [Original]

What's the evolutionary explanation for autism?

>> No.11102341

>>11102325
Evolution is randomized in changes and depends on natural selection to help useful adaptations thrive while ineffective changes die off.
Evolution doesn't need a reason, just needs random genetic changes over generations.

As for autism, it could be seen as an adaptation into specialization. Obsession with things in one common trait. Could be anime, could be comics, could be sports, could be math, could be engineering. But high functioning to moderate functioning autists can use that obsession to develop really specialized skills.

>> No.11102370

>>11102341
Autism is linked to malfunctions in cellular energy production so it's not simply an adaptation.
The focus on few things seems to be due to lacking the means/energy to build and use enough neural pathways continuously. Just my theory.

>> No.11102375

>>11102370
Evolutionary changes aren't always good. The glands on your asshole are one bad generic change from becoming taste buds.

>> No.11102376

>>11102325
People are evolving resistance to whatever causes neurotypicality. Genes for autism are identical to genes for high intelligence.

The image is nonsense.

>> No.11102392

>>11102325
Extreme end of male brain.

>> No.11102410

>>11102392
There is a strong correlation between MTF trannies and autism.

>> No.11102430

>>11102410
That tracks. They're autistic enough to conclude becoming a tranny is a good idea rather than actually having feminine brains.

>> No.11102433

>>11102375
ewwwww

>> No.11102556

>>11102341
>As for autism, it could be seen as an adaptation into specialization
Also massive risk taking that could provide massive payoffs. Mostly people probably just died. In the end it benefited society as a whoie.

>> No.11102599

>>11102325
We no longer live in our natural state as hunter-gatherers. So people who lack survival skills are entering the human genepool

>> No.11102602
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11102602

>>11102376
>unironically thinking that neurotypicals have lower reproductive fitness

>> No.11102758

>>11102602
Those genes are beneficial, it's only when you have so many of them that you get too different from other people when they become a problem.

>> No.11102834

>>11102325

I hold to something like this>>11102599
In a state of nature, “typical” behavior wouldn’t be a concept the average individual would have. Females would breed with whatever males are around, and as long as they could survive for that, it wouldn’t matter what you do. The civilized screening process for mating is absurd. Think about this: without language and civilitization, how would you identity an autist?

>> No.11102860

>>11102599
Will humanity truly degenerate when low iq retards get basic income?

>> No.11102883

>>11102834
>Think about this: without language and civilitization, how would you identity an autist?

People have always had language.

>> No.11103072

>>11102883
No they haven’t. They’ve had modes of communication and protolanguages, that doesn’t mena they’ve had full on sophisticated languages like the ones we know today. That’s like equating cave shelter with skyscrapers or child pleasure seeking behaviors with adult sexuality. We can identify the underpinnings of language in primitive behavior but they are not the same thing.

>> No.11103266

>>11102834
>how would you identity an autist?
Someone who travels to the deepest, darkest, and most dangerous areas of caves just to paint fucking animals on the walls

>> No.11103278

>>11102376
>>11102758
I have Asperger's syndrome, and find such information quite informative to use when explaining why "curing" us would be bad idea.
May I have your sources, please?

>> No.11103281

>>11103278
>*be a bad

>> No.11103294
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11103294

>>11102325
Source:
>https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4065100/
This also includes citations to other papers that explore the benefits to having Asperger's, or high-functioning autism.
Classical autism is just an extreme version of Asperger's, or high-functioning autism, a condition in which the neurological deviations are marked enough to be considerably hampering.

>> No.11104642

>>11103072
And what makes you think that? We know even the simples tribal societies speak complex langauges. English is a rather primitive language compared to most others, if anything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarani_language#Grammar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adyghe_grammar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yimas_language#Verbal_morphology
etc.

>>11103278
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4927579/

>> No.11104649

>>11102375
>The glands on your asshole are one bad generic change from becoming taste buds.

god, imagining getting rimmed and you can taste their bad breath as they smell your daily funk

i think I have an ass boner

>> No.11105397

>>11102376
>People are evolving resistance to whatever causes neurotypicality.
What? Citation needed.
>Genes for autism are identical to genes for high intelligence.
Not all autists are high functioning. I see a fair bit of this in my line of work, a few tick off all the boxes for Aspergers and several of my colleagues have children with autism.

>> No.11105588

Its worth it to have a high variance on the intelligence spectrum from a population perspective.


You will low-functioning autists, but every now and then you'll get a genius. The weird guy who sits in the back of the cave and plays with sticks and rocks all day. One day he invents the bow arrow and now your tribe has an insurmountable advantage and becomes dominant. Rest of the tribe realizes that its worth it to deal with this autistic fuck, so they throw him a woman to mate with as a reward.

Its also important enough to note that the autist them self doesn't necessarily have to breed to preserve the genes. Those genes already exist in the population. In other words, you don't need a mating pressure to mate with autists on the level of the individual. The autist's brother who is "normal" will likely carry enough of that genetic information forward, (as long as the unexpressed versions somewhat distributed through the population).

The low-functioning autists aren't a huge burden, they can still pick berries and do basic shit. And the high functioning autists can provide huge cultural/technological gains. The net expectation over the long term is positive in favor of autism.

So these autism genes have a net benefit, and provide a selection pressure to preserve them. Tribes that actively selected against autism (or by chance didn't have the gene at all) were out competed.

We could also look at high order evolutionary effects at the cultural level. Jews for example developed a culture of scholarship and provided an avenue of social status that was remarkably inline with harboring autistic traits. Being able to memorize the Torah become an adaptive trait and ensure you received an arranged marriage. Autists are pretty good at that kind of thing.

>> No.11106150

>>11102325

Genetic dead ends from people having children with old and expired DNA outside outside their fertility window.

There, it's selected against which is why it becomes more prevalent as people approach the age they would have either died or been rendered infertile. Both scenarios would exclude them from the effective mating pool.