Why the Autism Spectrum is Not the next evolutionary step.

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I have read in some postings the belief that autism and specially AS is the next evolutionary step for mankind. It is not. Why? Because being autistic of Aspie does not bring with it a reproductive advantage, at least not in the world is it is now. Auties, especially low functioning auties, are very unlikely to have mates. Aspies have a social difficulty which may make it hard to find a suitable reproductive mate. And that is why we are not going to be The Next New Thing

ruveyn[b]

What we cannot achieve through biology, we will achieve through technology.

1. Evolution doesn't depend exclusively on reproductive advantage.
2. There is no such thing as a "next step," certainly not one that would be expressed by such a large range of variations on the species norm.
3. The belief that people on the spectrum are a next evolutionary step is partly an outcome of ignorance about biology and evolution, and partly a need to counter the assumptions of inferiority so often associated with it.

My high IQ isn't an outcome of Asperger's. My strong analytical abilities may be. Neither of those, even in combination, make me a "next step."

Get your egoes and your psychological need for self-justification out of the equation, people. Such claims just make you look ridiculous.

Autism evolved because analytical thinking is an advantage to the species. It's nature's cheap way - and nature is always cheap - of stocking a population with a small number of specialised analytical thinkers.

UnusualSuspect is right - evolution has no game plan. Nature is not thinking "right, twenty-first century, time for the superbeings".

More advanced technology necessitate increase of analytical thinkers in population.

The only thing I heard about AS and evolution was RDOS's theory that AS is some kind of throwback to the Neanderthals......there's also a theory that Homo Sapiens accelerated the extinction of Homo Neanderthalis. If there's any truth in those two notions, we would seem to be an evolutionary failure that's only around because of all this modern political correctness which tends to disallow the more obvious attempts to bury us.

Building mechanical son??

No?

Mass-artificial insemination. I could alone father 800 billion offspring.

No, it doesn't - usually, more advanced technology requires less (not more) thinking by their users.

http://www.pkarchive.org/theory/backwrd2.html

If these theory of Paul Krugman is right, the future will be (even more) sad for Aspies.

"at least not in the world is it is now" doesn't make sense as argument in the context of "next step"
there are many aspects in the way AS deal with reality that can lead to the next step theory,
aside from their analytical power capabilities they usually expect and treat human contact much more sensibly ,
their perception of space and time is more advances then that of an NT,
their level of integrity is way above what consider normal,
they abstract much better than the average and have a much higher sensory sensitivity
they r much more unique and original than the average NT
the list is long and interconnected and many of the featured display by AS correspond very well to the way,even an NT envision the feature,
i was told by many ppl who knew me that i'm from the future,it's stupid i know but it is interesting to see how and why we raise such sentiments.
in "the world as it now",polluted,unfair,rude,stupid... they have to endure much heavier load the an NT and have to play by rules not suited to their personality

If AS really could be traced back to Neanderthals, it wouldn't mean that "we would seem to be an evolutionary failure...". The fact that it has survived could instead be evidence that we're needed in today's society. I see AS and NT more like a symbiotic, love-hate relationship, not one being "evolutionarily superior" than the other.

Neurotypicals do. They see everything as matter of hierarchy.

I have always considered the "next evolutionary step" rather ludicrous, although my son believes in it. Of course his oldest boy has autism and it is comforting for him to believe Aidan is an evolutionary advancement rather than just a child with challenges. Truthfully, I think autism has too many drawbacks to be an evolutionary advantage. Even the list above, with things like "greater integrity" shows drawbacks, not benefits, in my opinion. Lying seems to be an advantage in this world. Sensory senstivity is only a benefit if it is a slight sensitivity, but my sensitivity to light is more of a drawback. I could go on, but I think you all get the picture. Basically I think that autism is no more of an evolutionary advantage than schizophrenia or bipolar disorder is. Yes, some of them are very creative, but most struggle simply to survive.

Technology is funky... I agree with TPE2 that advanced technology, or even technology in general, allows users to think less, to do less work, etc.. On the flip side, advanced technology requires a high degree of technical ability simply to maintain that technology, and even more so to advance it. Such high technical ability is currently achieved by a relatively low proportion of the population. Honestly, most people aren't interested in math and science... heck most people aren't all that interested in learning period! They'd rather be able to use the technology than learn how to maintain it. So they're just going to push others to do the analytical thinking and technical learning for them, while they allow the technology essentially to domesticate themselves.

It's not the next step because there is no next step. Evolution does not have a direction. Everyone with a basic grasp of high school biology should understand this.

And not everything has an evolutionary advantage; some things are just there.