What's Your Perception of the Social World Around You?

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I am curious how this might differ between ASD people.

Hard to say everything you perceive. I just say that it's cruel. You can't get anywhere without doing something wrong.

I'm really not sure what you're asking. The topic is too broad. Can you be more specific? What aspects of "the world" do you mean?

I'm not sure what's meant specifically by the question, whether it's a question of how people with ASD perceive the world itself or about how people with ASD perceive the entirety of people on this planet and the social structures formed thereby.

The world itself is pretty amazing, but it's just one of the things in the universe. The universe is a seemingly infinite number of things put together in seemingly infinite different ways, and each thing seems to be made up of smaller things, and the interaction of smaller things creates the circumstances in which the larger thing can function. This can be seen in things like stars, which are giant nuclear reactors driven by chemical reactions driven by pressure and the interactions of particles, or can be seen in things like atoms, which are themselves made up of smaller particles, which are structured in different ways to create different elements and compounds.

If the question was regarding social structures, I'm not sure how to answer the question directly, but I'll try to answer it:

It's interesting to hear the claim that autistic people lack theory of mind. It seems that autistic perception initially causes trouble understanding that others' thought processes are different from one's own, but once autistic people are aware that such differences exist, it seems that in order to interact successfully, autistic people are basically forced to try to understand that their own thought patterns are uncommon, and to become at least somewhat knowledgeable about how to act to cause the desired reactions in others. It's not that autistic people develop *instinctual* understanding of *why* "neurotypical" people behave in certain ways or think certain things, but instead that autistic people develop understanding *that* "neurotypical" people expect certain reactions and behaviors from the people they interact with.

The autistic theory of mind re: "neurotypical" people becomes somewhat more accurate than the "neurotypical" theory of mind re: autistic people. In fact, the treatment of autistic people by "neurotypical" people seems at best profoundly ignorant of autistic theory of mind and at worst actively malicious toward it.

"Neurotypical" behaviors don't seem straightforward. The fact that they are typical seems to indicate that in the past, such behaviors may have created a greater likelihood of survival for those exhibiting those behaviors. For example, for "neurotypical" people, bullying seems to be a normative social influence, causing people to conform. I'm not sure that this is actively cruel, since in situations where one group is trying to attack another, the attacking group tends to go after those who are alone(like lions going after a prey animal that's by itself instead of with the group). When a "neurotypical" person is bullied, they tend to act more like others in a group, and this may be an instinct which has developed to cause the survival of as many people in the group as possible.

When acting toward autistic people, whose theory of mind is drastically different, instead of conformation, bullying causes confusion. If autistic people knew *how* to conform and did so, bullying would probably end. But because autistic people have limited or no understanding of how exactly to conform(and because systems set up and controlled by "neurotypical" people seem unreasonable and/or undesirable), bullying continues. And because social institutions of this world are generally run by people having "neurotypical" theory of mind, they seems cruel and pointless to people with different theories of mind or who lack theory of mind entirely.

I don't think the world is cruel. I think the basic systems in the universe operate in rational ways, but when multiple reasonable systems interact without conscious influence, they sometimes do so in ways that are inefficient, creating strange consequences and systems that seem very inefficient and confusing to people who can think of more straightforward and basic ways to accomplish similar things. The world and the people in it seem fairly ignorant of things which are atypical.

This will come of no surprise to you. A bit of an Austin Powers statement, without the glasses and the Mojo.

Each day, I step out of my time machine, to see this strange world around me. A strange, modern world, with computer screens, at every check out, in every store. A strange world, where a TV could be big enough, to take up the space, of the wall, above my bed. Something that I won't be buying, soon.

I see all these modern people, walking around, dressed in gender specific clothing, but I see something that I'm also familiar with - Beatles T-shirts, like in the 60s. I see these modern beings, speaking on futuristic high tech devices, that are called cellphones.

Wait! What's that thing that looks like a small rocket ship, on wheels. It's got to be the latest model, of some fancy sports car. Cool!

I see all this strange, modern food, in grocery stores, and restaurants. Hippie inspired foods, that weren't around, when my people, were parading the streets of London, in the 60s. I'll stick to my Mid 60s diet of Shake n Bake chicken with skin, and untrimmed steaks and pork chops, with rice, potatoes, noodles and vegetables.

I'm just happy, that I can find my old favourites, in the form of CDs, these days.

I generally feel most at home at Internet forums, reading zoology or history, playing videogames, and listening to music, mostly from videogame OSTs. I feel detached from most people, as if my body is just an avatar used to communicate with them, similar to the puppets that zookeepers use while feeding Californian condor chicks, though I do have friends. Social situations scare me, and I don't like direct eye contact. I hate loud noises, especially fire drill bells, but I can deal with them.

I look at other people and know that I am not quite like them, I knew that since I was a kid. However, when I talk to people, I think I'm doing everything right, and I thought that for years. Then I found out that I was not. Even as a kid, it's in my psych records I had no social skills, but I did not realize how odd I was. Everyone was too polite to say I was socially strange. I have had a little feedback recently as to how to improve social skills, one relative said I need to small talk and another said that I talk about uninteresting things too much, but one aunt said I do too much wrong to really explain it... My grandma thinks I'm normal though

Oh sorry. I thought you asked ":world" and not "social world"


Penguins. They remind me of penguins, quite honestly. Penguins preoccupied with other penguins, talking about penguin things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B71T_GpA2AM

If I'm not using language (by not using I mean there is absolutely no perception of language and often no perception that it could exist, certainly no comprehension, and total lack of even language-type abstract ideas), I perceive the motions of everyone around me and the motions form a pattern that I can map the shape of in the whole room full of around me.

If I am using language, then it's just really, really difficult and I'm trying really hard to both think in ideas, and come up with language, and I am spending too much energy on that to perceive anything like that. It's then just pure focus on translation from pattern-world to idea/language-world. And is exhausting.

I see the social world as a really exciting place, and I am lucky enough to sometimes have people invite me in. As an "aspie", however, I lack what is needed to take advantage of this world's excitement. Therefore I do the next best thing- I enjoy my own world as much as is humanly possible

I just went along, with how I've interpreted the question.

For the longest time I thought people were faking what they saw on tv. Thats how I learned how to imitate normal behavior why not them, they were just better at than me. Lets just say I got laughed at a lot.

the social world is an inexplicable network. people who are familiar with each other will "synchronize", forming groupings, i describe it as magnetic.

the forces/polarities seem not to affect me. i don't synchronize. i am an observer, drifting, watching the orbits, noticing everyone either repelling or attracting each other.

forces of trust or doubt, freely exerting. me, i have to distrust everyone with enthusiasm or i seem to be spotted by characters who can gain from me easily.