Autistic Aliens (or parallel hominids)

For the longest time I have wanted to set a story on a parallel Earth inhabited by a parallel race of humans (though not necessarily Homo sapiens, they could be a different human species similar to neanderthals) whose "typical" neurology is similar to what Autism and Asperger Syndrome resemble in our world.

I work in the mental/behavioral health field, primarily with Autistic individuals, so it's not information about Autism that I'm seeking. Rather, I'm curious as to what kind of a society these parallel humans might develop. Assume that most individuals of the species are what we might call "high-functioning," though others exist who are all over the spectrum. I don't want this species to have a high level of technology (the idea being that advanced technology is actually a fluke of development not seen in most parallel worlds in the story's 'verse, so they would be hunter-gatherers, and at least semi-nomadic). But how might concepts like "family," "tribal identity," etc... translate for a species like this.

edited 12th May '12 7:54:07 AM by fulltimeD

Considering (as far as I know. You know more than me) a fairly common aspect of autism is mind-blindness, it might be the case that individuals simply aren't social enough to form "tribes" beyond their nuclear family.

Actually, that. Small family communities.

edited 12th May '12 9:03:04 AM by SilentColossus

Some time ago, I read about a test performed with several autistic children. Researchers showed the kids a film (I think it was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and asked them some questions about the actions of the characters. From the answers they got, the researchers deduced that the children would assume that the characters in the film knew what they knew.

Such a difficulty would prove a hindrance in communication.

^ I wonder though about the sample size and the age(s?) of the children involved in the study. If you find a link to it, please do share.

Yeah, this isn't actually exclusive to autistic children, very young non-autistic children behave similarly in that sort of test. It just takes autistic people longer to figure out the other minds thing. Can't recall any of the ages involved though, sorry.

It's an interesting idea, though. A lot of problems for autistics are caused by the fact they can't integrate into 'normal' society, so perhaps if they were able to make their own society with rules that suited their mindset, they'd have more success? I'm not sure what those rules would be, though. I think autistics generally despise and fear change and ambiguity, so possibly more of a focus on unbreakable duty, with severe punishments for those who try to move outside the system? That way the moral system could be based more on self-interest than compassion, so even those who didn't empathise wouldn't upset the balance.

edited 14th May '12 7:18:53 AM by Kesteven

It was years ago in a book or a magazine, the name of I can't remember. Sorry.

We neither fear nor despise change. We simply dislike it when it comes unexpectedly or arbitrarily. Ambiguity simply frustrates us, because we wonder why the heck the person doesn't just tell us what they mean in the first place.

And where are you getting this 'self interested fascist society' stuff? That is how normal society often feels to us.

edited 17th May '12 2:47:06 AM by Dragon573

Actually it's the reverse of fascism - fascism relies on enforcing national and community identity at the expense of the individual, whereas what I'm envisioning is a hyper-individualistic society that compensates for a lack of national identity with mechanistic rules. I take your point that perhaps it needn't be as repressive as I've painted it, but I think that without the 'glue' of social identity and conformity to hold a nation together, it would find itself with few alternatives but to keep the peace by overt threats of force. That is just speculation though. That and having had to work in the past with groups of people who are mildly Asbergers, and being pretty heavily socially dysfunctional myself.

Since you identify as autistic though, how do you envision it?

edited 18th May '12 8:18:30 AM by Kesteven

The 'Fascism' was directed at the "unbreakable duty, with severe punishments for those who try to move outside the system," part, which is an element that is common in all totalitarian societies that I know of. Fascism was just the first system that sprang to mind, more so than real-world!communism, at least.

For a purely Autistic society... well, in a regular society, the person who sits at a table at lunch away from everyone else is a pariah, an outcast. For many of us who do that, it's simply more a matter of 'I don't have anyone I feel a compeling desire to sit with at the moment'. When we're quiet, or do things by ourselves, it's simply because we don't mind being alone at that point in time... when I, or others that I know, recieve repeated pressure towards doing something that is difficult for us to understand, we often just... shut down. We slouch forward, crossing our arms on the desk and rest our head against them, enclosing ourselves as much as possible, and, while we still hear what's being said to us, it's like background noise. We don't even really direct any thought towards it... or anything else, really. Eventually, as we age, we can manage that stress more effectively, but it still manifests, usually as a short (seconds long) period of being... frozen after something happens (Having someone get after us for 'just standing there' rather than automatically responding makes it worse, because we need that moment to process what it is we should do). At young ages, we generally prefer to have people leave us alone when we're sad or angry, and repeated attempts to find out what's wrong after being told (with gradually increasing volume) "don't ask," will be met with anger and hostility, and drive us further towards that shut down. We take things literally, generally don't try to sugarcoat things, saying exactly what we think if asked, even if it might seem callous to the average person, and think responses of "you should know" seem illogical, because how are we supposed to know if we don't ask? We also hold onto emotions for longer than most expect, unable to stop laughing at a joke, sometimes having an extended period of calmness before said joke is recalled and starts the laughter over again, and having grievances that people expect to be forgotten blossom into a grudge that can be harbored for years... "Hey, would you help me with 'x'?" "No!" "Jeez, dude, what's your problem?" "You called me an ass in Biology!" "We don't have the same biology class!" "Yes we did! We had Miss Stilson! You haven't been nice to me, why should I be nice to you?" "But that was last year!" "That doesn't mean you didn't do it!"

So, a society of such individuals would likely, to an average human, seem rude, because of their frankness with their opinions, tendency to join a conversation they overhear uninvited if they have something potentially useful to add, and their "bad" habit of asking questions other societies might find rude out of simple curiosity. They'd probably be little more introverted (though that may change over the course of the individual's life. Peer groups have a strong influence on individuals, especially early in life), and likely to have a small circle of close friends rather than knowing everyone's first name but not them as a person... And if you make one angry, don't expect it to help you when you need its talents.

That's mostly theory based on my own habits and the habits and mannerisms of other autistic individuals I've met, of course.

^ That was extremely helpful. Thank you.

edited 18th May '12 7:16:47 PM by fulltimeD

If I may offer my opinion, why not write a story that takes place in a world superficially similar to our contemporary society, except that (mostly) everyone is a high-functioning autistic?

This way, it would be more accessible to non-autistic people, and the element of surrealism is what would make it entertaining. Neurotypical people would read it, and suddenly realize that there is more to this "autism" thing than they previously thought.

However, I strongly suggest having an editor who is themselves a high-functioning autistic, in order to avoid any unfortunate mistakes.

Oooh, interesting! My Aspie senses are tingling!

I think an important thing will be to take a good, hard look at some stuff you take for granted in this society. Table manners, for example. Some of them are simply ridiculous and make no logical sense. Or the oddities of greeting people — the "how are you" exchange? Why ask how someone is when you don't actually care? Get to the point! — or things like "please" and "thank you", even. Anything that does have a real concrete basis for existing is probably not going to be a part of an autistic culture. Their language would likely be very concise — nothing at all like English, I'd think.

Importantly, it's not just going to be a society where everyone is self-interested. In my experience Aspies or Autistic people are often even more conscious of others. It's just that we'll show it differently. Rather than a silly, seemingly arbitrary gesture of gratitude like "thanks", we might do something more concrete and tangible — a present at a later date, or somesuch thing. (this is, of course, speaking from the perspective of a society in which most are high-functioning autistic and therefore individuals are not taught to say their pleases and thank-yous). Also, people might be more inclined to explain their emotional state to others, rather than relying on facial expressions.

And, hmm... I wonder whether they'd have any form of religion... my gut feeling at least not to the extent that we do, because people on the autistic spectrum are more likely to be atheists anyway... perhaps nothing like any form of indigenous religion on this world, but maybe more abstract creation myth. And might they already have a relatively sophisticated mathematical system for their level of technology?

Creativity might be a large part of the culture too, but I think it would be more specialised... there would probably be certain people who are the artists or musicians of the tribe/group (and that would probably be their entire life, obsessive as autistics tend to be), not a thing just anyone does.

This is fascinating!

edited 25th Jun '12 8:20:21 PM by ImprovisationallyYours

Good God.

I feel understood.

...It frightens me.

I think that in terms of religion, there would be something, especially if we're talking about a pre-industrial society that doesn't have a well-developed model of science. People will want to understand their world even when they don't have the full means to rationalize it, and to someone who doesn't know what we do about the nature of the universe, religion would seem like a practical explanation.

I could see less of a theological/philosophical bent to the religion and more of a focus on concrete ideas, perhaps. It would mean less arbitrary things to have to understand. I think a somewhat animistic religion would go alongside that. It does make more sense that instead of worshiping some guy in the sky who might or might not send his eye to destroy you or some guy who was also the god but was also a guy who got himself killed so he could be reborn, you worship the sun, because it gives you light, and the river that runs by your town, because it gives you water.

Religion and science in antiquity, and up until around the scientific revolution in fact, were often considered to run fairly closely together in a number of societies. If we're thinking that the autistic society is going to be scientisty but not industrialized, some sort of religion would definitely make sense. Religion was the way to make sense of the world, so if their society would be interested in a coherent view of the world, they would probably turn to some sort of religion.

Also if they don't like arbitrary or unexpected change, I'd think they would choose to settle in fairly stable areas, like Egypt's Nile valley, over places like Mesopotamia's Fertile Crescent.

The society wouldn't be atheist per se. Religion would probably never develop beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, where belief is in local nature spirits and appeasing them for good luck. A society like this would be better called untheist, as the concept of "gods," "faith," "worship," all things we take for granted, would have never existed. One analogous example in modern fiction, if you need one, would be the Nerubians in Warcraft, to whom the very concept of religion is completely foreign.

Wouldn't that technically be a sort of animism or shamanism if they're worshiping local nature spirits? Even if they don't think of it in very abstract terms and don't ascribe emotional or spiritual significance to it, it would still be a sort of religion. I wouldn't discount the idea of worship either, at least on some sort of basic offering/exchange level. Developing dogma and theology would probably be slow if it happened at all, but worship itself doesn't seem out of the question.

Yeah, that's still a religion. Australian Aboriginal spirituality, for example, is a religion — despite being along those lines. Just of a different kind than Christianity or Hinduism or what-have-you.

Though I think you're probably right. Likely it would involve animistic nature-spirit worship of some kind. Though not necessarily quite as it exists in the world today.

Actually, I think some form of ritual would be inevitable in an autistic society. When I was a child I had a lot of trouble distinguishing correlation from causation, which resulted in a lot of odd habits that I HAD to do, for fear that things in my day (which had nothing to do with my habits) would go terribly wrong. One of the habits I remember best is that at night time, I had to swaddle one of my toys with a specific blanket and hold it in a specific way (which was quite uncomfortable from memory) and sleep for exactly 11 hours. If I didn't do this I thought that I would never be able to sleep again. My doctor told my mother that this was normal, and extremely common among those on the autistic spectrum. In a society of autistic individuals I can imagine small habits and superstitions like this coming and going frequently as different generations come and go, which could be viewed as religion depending on how you look at things.

It would probably resemble a minecraft server.

If you're starting from the stone age up, it's entirely possible that an autistic society would develop metal working before agriculture. Agriculture develops due to a need to fit the most amount of people in the smallest possible area. After all, a tribe with 10-12 members would generally kick the crap out of a tribe with only 6-8 members and take their lunch.However, with an autistic society, larger groups are harder to co-ordinate. A small, well equipped group could cut right through a larger group before the larger group could could organize a response.

True, though that's ritual on a personal level, and probably wouldn't be passed down

I was under the impression that metal-working is something that generally originates after sedentarization, and sedentarization (I'm probably making that word up) is something that's possible through agriculture. To start metal-working you typically need to mine ore and have fires capable of smelting, which isn't easy to carry around so much.

For a little bit of metalworking history, tin and lead were usually the first metals to be discovered that were workable, because they can be extracted/melted in the heat of a campfire, so they could in fact be discovered accidentally. But because they're both fairly soft metals, they're not much use for weapons (they can't hold a point too well) and don't have a major impact on development. Copper requires something like a pottery kiln to extract from its ore, so it's not as easy to make, and copper on its own is also somewhat soft, but copper is important because you can make bronze with it. Bronze is copper plus arsenic and/or tin, and since arsenic is a common impurity in copper ore the discovery of bronze can also possibly be accidental.

And that's your metallurgy lesson for the day. The More You Know

You want expert potters who never really settled down? The Jomon, my friend. True, they didn't pick up metallurgy by themselves... but, they had the existing technological savvy on board to run with it pretty darned fast when it did get imported, thanks to that high-end pottery they did.

And, bang goes the theory that only settled, fully agricultural societies could produce ceramic that fine. A twist of fate might have had them finding bronze a lot sooner.

Goes to show: the modern Japanese might not like the original inhabitants all that much... but, in some respects, they took notes.

edited 3rd Jul '12 12:17:22 PM by Euodiachloris

I've been thinking of precisely this for my own setting. An intelligent species that humans call hexapodes, from the moon of a gas giant mostly covered in ice with a buried ocean warmed by tidal effects. (Their world might seem single-biome to a human flying over, but it's as diverse as ours from their point of view.)

Evolutionary explanation: Whereas humans (and neandarthals, and gammars, and in a different way portamunds) developed their intelligence in groups of about 180, with evolution favouring those able to handle and manipulate others, the hexapodes lived in small family groups and often had to go alone due to scarce, dispersed food. Their ancestors had ape-like intelligence, being omnivores who migrated between the surface and the ocean. As cubs they inquired about the world about and learned techniques from the elders.

But then a sudden climate change threw their small population into crisis, and the descendants who survived the next few hundred thousand years became neotenous, continuing all their life to be curious and ready to learn. They had to judge where to go across the icy expanses to find food, taking into account numerous factors including prior knowledge and the weather cycle. The result is that their brains are not wired for social interaction (no "mirror neurons") but they have very good memory and analytical skills. From a human perspective, the average hexapode is strongly autistic and with some savant skills.

They are as neurodiverse as humans, and the more social among them are often leaders and mediators. But their society is weak, and while they have plenty of innovative individuals, ideas spread very slowly. When humans land, there are some sedentary populations (very small by human standards), while most of them are still nomadic, but with scattered technology such as metallurgy, gunpowder and steam pistons working off geothermal vents. They were present but not being shared.

The humans explorers feel freer to introduce technology to the hexapodes than they would later be with the gammars. Partly inexperience, mostly that the hexapodes accept and understand it very quickly. They do not have large societies to be destabilized, and their religion is quite weak; while they have myths explaining how things are, they are much less likely to attribute natural phenomena to intelligent beings or imagine deities judging or protecting them. (They don't have our sense of "agency".)

The humans are glad to meet them; however different, they are much more relatable than the portamunds. And the brightest among them are able to handle and process vast amounts of data to find patterns even better than artificial intelligences. Despite their small numbers, the hexapodes have a strong presence in the Confederacy of Worlds.

Some of the hexapodes' politeness rituals are the reverse of humans'. They actually try to treat each other like inanimate objects much of the time, because being addressed directly triggers their fear of strangers. Their languages often lack or make little use of first and second person. They tend to think it discourteous to make compliments as much as insults about strangers; otherwise they are often brutally honest. They don't care for comfort platitudes ("you'll be fine").

About those AIs: they also lack mirror neurons, but don't have the crippling shyness. They often act as intermediates between the species, and not only because they can speak to both (hexapodes communicate using an ultrasound sonar, and to talk to humans need a modem of some sort).