Saturday 7 January 2006

Autism & humanity v. 3.0

For introduction I'll refer you to my Three years ago entry, which is still pretty current with what we know about autism. Most notably, it seems that autism is more common in nerdy families. There are "autism spectrum" syndroms such as Asperger's and hyperlexia, which basically mean that the "patient" is highly intelligent in a theoretical way but socially dysfunctional. Given society today, I am not sure how much of a loss that is. Then again, I may be one of them.

The new thought is combining this with several essays I have written about a possible future change in human consciousness, similar to the sudden shift when our ancestors started to display creativity somewhere around 60-40 000 years ago. I had a long series about this starting on June 18th and lasting for a week.

It looks like a paradox. Nerds, generally the most creative people around, and often with an almost obsessive dependency on language, are begetting autists, who don't use language. And what's with the weirdness of their brain cortex growing faster than in other babies? If they are so advanced, why do they go back to an earlier stage of human evolution, before we had language?

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Note that this is just a crazy idea and I cannot prove it in any way. I don't even really believe it myself. But it is a thought that should be thought, at least. What if they were born prepared for the next version of the human operating system, but it isn't implemented yet?

Clearly humans were able to survive – although they were never plentiful – before the invention of modern language, art, religion, and other forms of culture. Running on instinct and simple traditions that could be learned by example, our ancestors not only survived but spread across most of Eurasia and Africa, in a climate that was generally more hostile than today. (It was the deep of the latest Ice Age.) Let us call these clever but uncultured people humanity version 1.

The next wave started 60-40 000 years ago and is still going strong. With it came culture as we know it, and language as we know it, and quite possibly our compounded self-awareness. (We are not just aware of ourselves, but also aware of our self-awareness.) Most likely this is an upgrade of the human mind, a new way of thinking with the same type of brain, like a Human Operating System version 2.

If there is a new upgrade, as I sometimes imagine, we don't really know what it will be. Personally I think it will somehow be related to mysticism or with a more descriptive name, the open field of consciousness. Over the millennia, it seems that mystics have an edge, a greater suppleness of sanity. They are able to see connections more easily, as they perceive the whole world as one unified field of existence. Also they are less bound by the side effects of the ego: The chase after status and the mistaken belief that my wishes are more important than other people's needs, or that the world began with me and ends with me so there is no need to consider any longer perspective.

Now we know that the parents of autists are often unusually intelligent and tend toward the introverted personality type. It is tempting to imagine that their children were destined for Human Consciousness version 3.0, but fell through because this was not yet released. As we shall see, there are more reasons to believe this is not the case, but it is a fascinating thought and might even make some good science fiction for those who can handle this issue with enough emotional distance.

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The most likely explanation for autism, however, is that it comes from a mutation that gives a benefit (higher intelligence and concentration) in a single dose, but in double dose (as when nerds have children together) it becomes dangerous instead. This is certainly not unique: In areas with malaria, sickle cell anemia is a frequent genetic disease. When you inherit the gene from only one parent, it protects against malaria; if you inherit from both, your red blood cells become misshapen and lose much of their effectiveness in transporting oxygen. Yet the bonus of the single gene is so strong that this mutation has spread not one but four times in history in different areas where malaria is common.

One theory about autism is that it comes from a defect in the brain stem. This came to light when a researcher working with autistic children noticed that a large number of them had their ears placed a bit differently from their family members. Since the ears and the brain stem are formed at the same time and from nearby cell groups, the scientist got the kids x-rayed and found a shortening of their brain stem. This change takes place fairly early in pregnancy, so there is really no way to stop it when the baby is born. The autism will unfold, all one can do is make the best out of their lives.

Autism is not really one single illness, though, but rather a powerful symptom that can have more than one cause. Not all autistic children haver "autist ears" for instance. So it is still possible that some babies become autistic because their brain develops too fast, before they have been exposed to language long enough for it to begin shaping their consciousness.

Will the next version of humanity include those who fall through this version due to lack of language? Probably not, unless telepathy becomes real and reliable. (One way this could happen is by implanting a small radio transmitter in the brain, but that is kinda not very poetic, not to say mystic.) Even then you would probably have to act very early, immediately after birth at the very latest.

But the next upgrade of the human mind may unleash a deluge of creativity that utterly dwarfs anything we have seen so far. Already the human race is creating at an ever faster pace, anything from art to medical equipment to weapons of mass destruction. Once the filter of ego falls away to release the human spirit unbridled, we may even find a way to include anyone who is willing, no matter that they fell outside during the current age of man. Well, we... I will probably not be there, unless resurrection is one of the new advances. I realize now that this goal is quite a bit ahead. Even if I were to live as long again as now, I would only be a little closer. I may see the promised land, but I write this also for a later generation who may enter it.