From: Russell Wallace (russell.wallace@gmail.com)
Date: Mon Sep 04 2006 - 02:53:34 MDT
On 9/4/06, Olie Lamb <neomorphy@gmail.com> wrote:
[interesting post, thanks!]
Is it the case that the sciences are full of autistic people? Not from my
> experience. Probably a higher percentage than in other fields. But it is
> true that whilst autism-y tendencies can have huge disadvantages in some
> areas, they aren't a problem in others. Such leanings may make it easier to
> deal with pertinent scientific issues, so there may be some sciency
> advantages.
>
And there is a theory that the sciences _are_ full of people who have a
_partial_ dose of the autism genes - it's been suggested as an explanation
for why Silicon Valley, for example, has a higher than normal percentage of
autistic children (more likely to get two tech types marrying and then by
Mendel's laws, some of the kids get a bad combination of genes). I find this
highly plausible.
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