Are autistics a subspecies of human?

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I was thinking, autism isn't just a "illness" in the way that bipolar or schizophrenia are, in fact it is such a pervasive difference, involving the entire worldview of the individual and how they interact with the world around them, that I was thinking that there could be said to be two subspecies of Homo Sapiens, Homo Sapiens Sapiens and Homo Sapiens Autisticus. HSS would be a NT, and HSA would be us. NTs seem to intuitively sense that there is something "off" about autistics, something they can't put their finger on but it's a real difference that makes them very afraid. Sometimes I wonder if humanity is evolving due to all the junk we've fouled the planet with over the last couple centuries, and autistic humans have some yet to be discovered resistance to pollution and increased carbon levels that NTs lack. How else to explain NT families suddenly producing AS kids? Evolution isn't clean and tidy, so we get severely autistic kids who smear poop on walls and scream all day, but then there are the majority of us on this forum, the ones who are "a little off". We LOOK normal, but we aren't. I read that there is less than .5% difference between humans, maybe the difference between autistics and NTs is greater, or maybe the difference is in such a way that we perceive the world in such a different way that the NTs are afraid of this new subspecies of human. It's sort of like X Men, where the mutants who look normal aren't, and the normals can sense it.

No, autistic people are not a subspecies of human. Autistic people are the same species of human that everyone else is.

I have heard this or similar arguments many times. I agree in principle, but not reality. I understand what you are trying to say, that is Autism sets us apart from NT`s. Perhaps it would be better to imagine that Homo sapiens could be split into sub species. Auties being one sub, Schizoids another. Etc:- however I overlap both of those two and if you think that you have monopoly on "being Different" as a life challenge I can tell you this is not the case. I know other schizoids who think they have discovered something fundamental that will change the world. Or maybe you saw the "beheader" in court recently who thought he was Jesus. Incidentally my younger brother spent some time in an institution because he thought he was the saviour (Or something like that anyway).

Aspies are quite mild in their traits compared on a spectrum of mental illness.

There are many ways that people can end up being different from the majority of people around them. In this regard, autism is not particularly special or exceptional. Autistic people are different in a particular set of ways, but so are many other people who are not autistic but have other things to deal with. And of course, those all overlap with autistic people.

ret*d people with down-syndrome are much more likely to be some sort of sub-species of human since you can usually tell their mental-disorder just by looking at their facial features.

However, people with DS probably aren't a sub-species at all, so autistic people certainly aren't either.

In regards to autistic people as X-Men: It's interesting how Hollywood always seem to portray people with autism in their movies as having super powers. Not the ability to create storms or project spikes from their faces, but with "gifts" like card counting (Rain Man), bringing families together (My Name Is Khan, Snow Cake), building a planetarium in their living room (Adam), excelling at marathon running (the Korean film Running Boy, aka Marathon), eidetic memory (Rain Man, Criminal Minds, etc). I don't think we'll ever see an X-Men film about mutants with super minor, non-heroic powers nor will we ever see an autistic film about someone who has no super gifts to cheer about.

I have a better question, are you serious? you can't be. How could two normal humans produce a child with autism, if it was a sub-species

As much as it would make us the utmost exotic in the breeding sense, it is not true.

We're part of human diversity. Autism is one of many, many ways in which humans can have extreme traits. Some of these extreme traits cause disability; some do not. Autism usually does. However, even when disability is involved, diversity makes us stronger because the different ways in which people think allows us to approach problems from many different directions. Including people with disabilities within the general population lets them make their own--often very unique--contributions. Interdependence in a diverse society has made us very successful as a species.

So, no, I don't think autistics are a subspecies. We are probably more of an example of a human trait--the wide variety in our abilities and traits--which also expresses itself in many other ways.

I'd hate to see us as subhuman or inferior. I'd like to see us as equal to most people.

No.