Post by Jeff Gerke on Aug 26, 2007 14:33:55 GMT -5
My family has recently been introduced firsthand into the world of special education. We've been learning about autism and Asperger Syndrome, in particular. I've also had some experience with Down Syndrome.
In researching autism I've been reading Temple Grandin's fascinating book Thinking in Pictures. Among other great things, she mentions that autistic/Asperger brains are not wired the same as "normal" people's brains. If a normal brain is a whole corporation networked together, an autistic brain is a whole corporation with a lousy networking setup and no CEO.
In order to do the work of the CEO, an autistic brain has to kind of rig a solution, using the guys in advertising and graphic design to help the other departments come at something like an abstract concept.
It reminded me of Battlestar Galactica in which the Cylons attacked all the networked computer systems of the human fleet. But because Commander Adama was so stuck in his old ways he'd never allowed the Galactica to be networked together. This saved their lives.
What if aliens attacked our earth with some kind of mind ray that affected only people with "networked" brains? That would wipe out 98% of the world's population. But folks with atypical brains--like people with autistic or other non-normal brains--were spared. The aliens waltz in thinking they'd decimated the whole population. But our hero, a young man with high-functioning autism, realizes what's happening and begins to understand that it's up to him and others like him to mount a resistance.
So imagine him scouring the land looking for others like him--including those with Down Syndrome or traumatic brain injuries, etc.--and trying to get them to work together to fight the bad guys. And in the end he has assembled a very odd team indeed, made up of those society had rejected and each able to do only one or two things (but to do them well), and they try to pull off the Big Thing.
It reminds me somewhat of David Brin's Startide Rising series in which humans and animals work together to accomplish spaceflight. Temple Grandin says that the autistic brain is similar in some ways to the animal brain, especially in the sense of thinking in pictures. So maybe our hero team includes some animals, as well.
It's important not to say that all autistic people are also savants (like Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man), because only something like 5-10% of autistic people are also savants. So our hero team would have to be made up of just "normal" special ed folks.
I don't know, I just think it's a cool idea that the humans our society have marginalized might one day save the planet. Plus what a great way to introduce the layman to the bizarre, wonderful, and sometimes alien way God has made the autistic mind work.
Jeff
In researching autism I've been reading Temple Grandin's fascinating book Thinking in Pictures. Among other great things, she mentions that autistic/Asperger brains are not wired the same as "normal" people's brains. If a normal brain is a whole corporation networked together, an autistic brain is a whole corporation with a lousy networking setup and no CEO.
In order to do the work of the CEO, an autistic brain has to kind of rig a solution, using the guys in advertising and graphic design to help the other departments come at something like an abstract concept.
It reminded me of Battlestar Galactica in which the Cylons attacked all the networked computer systems of the human fleet. But because Commander Adama was so stuck in his old ways he'd never allowed the Galactica to be networked together. This saved their lives.
What if aliens attacked our earth with some kind of mind ray that affected only people with "networked" brains? That would wipe out 98% of the world's population. But folks with atypical brains--like people with autistic or other non-normal brains--were spared. The aliens waltz in thinking they'd decimated the whole population. But our hero, a young man with high-functioning autism, realizes what's happening and begins to understand that it's up to him and others like him to mount a resistance.
So imagine him scouring the land looking for others like him--including those with Down Syndrome or traumatic brain injuries, etc.--and trying to get them to work together to fight the bad guys. And in the end he has assembled a very odd team indeed, made up of those society had rejected and each able to do only one or two things (but to do them well), and they try to pull off the Big Thing.
It reminds me somewhat of David Brin's Startide Rising series in which humans and animals work together to accomplish spaceflight. Temple Grandin says that the autistic brain is similar in some ways to the animal brain, especially in the sense of thinking in pictures. So maybe our hero team includes some animals, as well.
It's important not to say that all autistic people are also savants (like Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man), because only something like 5-10% of autistic people are also savants. So our hero team would have to be made up of just "normal" special ed folks.
I don't know, I just think it's a cool idea that the humans our society have marginalized might one day save the planet. Plus what a great way to introduce the layman to the bizarre, wonderful, and sometimes alien way God has made the autistic mind work.
Jeff
