Are autistics a subspecies of human?

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People with Asperger's Syndrome are human, we just have a bit of a mental variation from them.

But you already know that didn't you..

I'll have to agree with Callista on this one, on second thought. I was just wondering if autism was such a "pervasive developmental disorder" that it would be incorrect to think of it as an "illness" in the way that schizophrenia is, for example. You can look at a schizophrenic who thinks he's Jesus and say he's sick and needs help. But autism isn't necessarily a "sickness" but simply a different way of viewing the world. It would be under the same category as having black skin instead of white skin, or being from a Middle Eastern haplogroup instead of a European one (like Jews who lived in Europe for centuries but maintained their genetic separateness). The thing is, NTs tend to think of autism as an "illness" needing a "cure" in the same way that we might cure cancer. But it's not, it's simply part of human diversity. My thinking in the OP was along the lines of those who say that the different races might be different subspecies of human, but then I remembered that only a handful of genes determine skin color.

Different species and sub-species are usually classified by differences in physical appearance, not by neurological differences. If humans were classified the same way that birds are, different races of humans would probably be classified as different sub-species of humans, but NTs and Autistics would not. The American Crow and the Mexican Crow are very similar in appearance but are still classified as being different species, yet Caucasian humans and African humans are more different in appearance from each other but aren't even classified as being different sub-species. For politically correct reasons, humans aren't biologically classified the same way as animals. If humans were biologically classified the same way as animals though, I don't believe that being Autistic would make you a different sub-species from NTs.

Scientifically, if a member of group A and a member of group B can reproduce together and then the offspring can reproduce, then groups A and B are of the same species.

An ASD and NT in general can do this so are of the same species.

In order to become a sub-species, a population of animals would need to be isolated from others of the species for a substantial amount of time in order to accumulate enough genetic differences to be considered a sub-species. All members of that isolated population would then be included in the same sub-species. With more genetic differences the population would be a separate species. That process is speciation.

All humans on earth today belong to the same sub-species. Random genetic differences are part of the overall plan. In order for speciation to occur you would need an entire population with it's own gene pool, not individuals within the same gene pool, that is just genetic variation.

So the reason that different races of humans aren't classified as different sub-species whereas very similar looking animals are, is because humans globalized but animals didn't? But before globalization, humans in different parts of the world were technically different sub-species, right?

No. Caucasian, South-East Asian, Middle-Eastern - those are subspecies.

In biology, supspecies refer to populations that have been separated from each other reproductively, but not long enough to become separate species. Pretty much fits with what in humans gets called 'race'.

I get your point, but subspecies does not mean what you think it means. Autism is a form of variation within populations, not a separate population group.

I have read that a race of people is a sub-subspecies, but I guess taxonomic classifications can be a bit arbitrary. At one time there were many different species of humans. Neanderthals were once classified as a sub-species, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, but now they are usually considered a separate species, Homo neanderthalensis.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

Race is more of a social category--think of the way an American can have only one great-grandparent from Africa and they may still consider themselves "black" even if all the other great-grandparents were from Europe. Cultural, social, whatever... Loosely connected to physical appearance and somewhat to country of origin, but strongly cultural.

You can make an argument for sub-groups of people from general regions which were mostly isolated from other regions by mountains or water, and those groups are somewhat useful because their physiologies can be very slightly different--for example, people originating from areas where malaria is endemic will be more likely to have sickle cell anemia, and people originating from cold climates are more vulnerable to skin cancer. There are also genetic disorders which run in various groups, for example Tay-Sachs. Some groups may have strikingly different traits; for example some relatively isolated groups are very short or tall. Those sub-groups of people may or may not fall along racial lines, but they are more relevant to biologists and doctors. If you want to study race, then that's more along the lines of sociology, anthropology, and social psychology.

Homo Sapiens WallWalkerInto.

http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/defini ... subspecies

I do not believe we are a subspecies based upon this definition. We are not geographically isolated from NTs.

Honestly, I don't believe this is helping our case whatsoever with the NT population.

I don't believe it is our genetics that makes us great but how we live our lives. It is the things we do that make us great, not what possessions or money we have.

This is a way of trying to make ourselves feel better about ourselves. It might bring us a temporary high but will accomplish nothing.

I live in the USA and this is how I see it. I believe we are trying to find meaning behind certain things. We're asking ourselves is this all there is? There has to be more or at least I am. I do not know about others.

I believe the country I live in is maladjusted and dysfunctional. I believe our society is has gone into a certain of extreme of this internal locus of control, independence, self-reliance, and extreme individualism. A lot of people in America can't think of what is beyond a commodity meaning what can be purchased or sold. We live in an extreme business and consumer type society in which anything that can't be purchased or sold is considered worthless. Human beings are considered resources in this type of society.

What I believe is happening is we're trying to find meaning in a society that is dysfunctional, vapid, empty, cold and machine-like. We live in a society in which everything is considered separate instead of being interrelated. IMHO, we are all interrelated and interdependent on each other. North Koreans may be starving of food but Americans are starving and malnourished as well. Our souls are on life support.

http://chartdiagram.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs/

A lot of people in America are missing their self-fulfillment and psychological needs.

IMHO, we will have to find our own meaning and one way is by helping others out in their needs.

Down syndrome is caused by people having a third chromosome. They're "extra" humans.

I would think just species not sub-species would make more sense, sub species seems to suggest a little more than 'differences' such as some humans being inferior to humans in general. For instance cats are cats, there are different breeds/species but not really sub-species as that would indicate something that's less than a cat.

Are autistics a sub-species? No, because we have a syndrome of traits, and not a fixed collection, and the latter is usually how a sub-species is defined.

A better question is if the traits that builds up ASD and neurodiversity comes from another species? The answer to this is quite likely yes. And to those that claim that human diversity has many other dimensions other than neurodiversity, this is simply not true. Neurodiversity is correlated to basically everything in human diversity that is of genetic origin.

There are sub-species of cats:

- Felis silvestris catus (house cat)
- Felis silvestris silvestris (european wild cat)
- Felis silvestris lybica (cat-of-Nubia, the wild ancestor of house cat)
- Felis silvestris cafra (Sub-saharan Africa wild cat)
- Felis silvestris ornata (Central Asia wildcat)
- Felis silvestris bieti