Could Autism Be an Evolutionary Step Forward?

[hunter]

48. I've had paranormal experiences. I've had telepathic experiences.

Been teased that I can be a bit fey, especially on the doom-and-gloom side of the scale.

I've been woken by my grandmother's and great grandmother's voices in the night.

In other words, I can be quite mad.

This does not change my assertion.

Most of my ancestors came to America not for the "opportunity" but because they saw that everything around them in Europe was turning to shit and they didn't want to die.

I have one Southern U.S.A. ancestor who foresaw the Civil War coming and set out walking to Oregon, probably not for any noble reasons, Oregon was then a Whites Only territory, he just didn't want to be conscripted into the yet undeclared confederacy and die.

Was any of this pattern recognition or paranormal precognition?

I'm sticking with pattern recognition.

I don't think any of this discussion is fair to people who are entirely or almost entirely dysfunctional in society because of their autism. My dad had cousins who were hidden away by the family because they could not function in ordinary society. It was their good fortune they had family affluent enough to support them. A portion of that affluence came from the tortured autistic spectrum "geniuses" who got lucky, but most of it came from the hard working practical people who loved them.