[extropy-chat] fiction and autism

[Robert Bradbury]

Just a brief add, I note that on Feb. 25, I posted a note about the genetic
aspects of autism and Asperger's.  While I will not comment on the possible
connection between these conditions and mirror neurons (as I have not
studied it) I will note that out of the 5-10 genes in OMIM which have been
linked with autism/Asperger's, some of them appear to be involved in aspects
of neuron structure.

So it seems reasonable to me to assume that individuals with these
characters might be viewed as "running on significantly different hardware"
and thus they are "different".  Of course in a decade or so we will all be
carrying little gene profile cards documenting our unique differences and so
it will not be that novel.  But for now it seems interesting as we learn
about the variants in humanity that walk among us.

Robert
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