Reflections on a New Year - Autism and Evolution Revisited

What are the external factors at play in our psychic abilities? Why a spike for 12 months, and then back to sleep again? If we have the ability, why is it latent or hiding? Are there external forces of nature that trigger our innate abilities?

More questions than answers these days.

Of all my posts (only a few) the most popular by far is the question about "Is Autism Evolution"? I re-read my post from two years ago and find I have more questions still. Would we as a species with all our advanced technology recognize evolution? I would not wish Autism on any child or parent, but what if... maybe... that child held a key to survival in an uncertain future?

Would evolution look like an increase in the number of cortical neurons and the speed of their connections? If so, then isn't that what an Autistic Savant experiences? Evolution isn't a perfect next generation of children... it is a mutation, with survivors and well... losers. In this case it may not be survival of the fittest but survival of the fastest (neurons).

We generally accept Moore's law which states computer speeds will double every 18 months while the prices will halve. If we are approaching a technological singularity, is the autistic brain moving toward a better adaptation for our future?

I think our perception of "smart" or "intelligent" is limited by our lack of intelligence. We look at someone who is a non-verbal autistic person and think "mentally retarded" (in unkind words). But I know my son, who *was* non-verbal was far from slow. He just didn't need language to communicate. That changed when he went to school. He realized quickly when the kids made fun of him that he needed to sound like them. I'm fortunate, he has had a lot of help, and he has made a lot of progress, most people do not know he is autistic. They just think he's odd.

What I noticed though, as his language skills developed, his psychic skills dropped. BUT... I'm not convince the two are related. Having my own psychic skills wane over the same period of time, I suspect external factors at play. I suspect geomagnetic influences on parts of our brain that we do not yet understand. I think some of us are more sensitive to these influences, like some people who get nauseous near earth quake fault lines, the sensitive ones start picking up our psychic radar in the right geomagnetic conditions.

Are psychic abilities a latent talent in everyone, but a few of us have the switch permanently turned on? Do autistic kids build these abilities because other abilities are turned off, like a blind person's hearing becoming acute to compensate for not being able to see? We know the brain will compensate and build new pathways to adapt. Are psychic skills an early adaptation for autistic children that go away when they are no longer needed? Would we want to enhance that for a better future?

Reflections on 2011... More questions, a few answers.