Parallel Play

[unixronin]

Tim Page writes for the New Yorker about Asperger's syndrome.  It's another well-written and revealing article from the Aspie perspective.

Comments

[smandal.livejournal.com]

Caring for inanimate objects came easily. Learning to make genuine connections with people—much as I desperately wanted them—was a bewildering process.

+50

I live two lives. The one where I'm present in the outside world -- seizing opportunities, getting things done, moving forward. Then there is the inner world where time stands still -- everything is coherent, perfect, and the world is like a memory I have yet to experience.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. Something like the android dream ... and then the outside world intrudes.

[smandal.livejournal.com]

Wake up, time to die.

[laurarey.livejournal.com]

Fascinating reading. I find the idea of neuro-diversity intriguing.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I had an odd dream last night in which we (the human race, that is) had a first-contact with a spacefaring alien race, who told us how very fortunate it was that we'd learned to recognize and diagnose Asperger's syndrome, because what we call Asperger's was the signature if a set of mental traits which are absolutely necessary to pilot a starship in hyperspace, and this was really important because a major interstellar warfront was about to sweep through this sector, and they could teach us to build ships and train our pilots but we had to HAVE the potential pilots in the first place. And oh look, we do. Oh frabjous day, callooh callay, now we'll be able to protect ourselves when the Jabberwock comes calling, and have enough pilots in fact to be able to contribute to the war effort and maybe turn the tide in this sector (if they can help us train enough Aspies fast enough). Something to do with hyperspace jumps taking anywhere from minutes to eight or ten hours, and if your concentration or your grasp of the geometry of local hyperspace slips for more than a few seconds during the jump, you're fucked.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can identify. School in the sixties with Aspergers is not something anyone should have to go through.

Yet with my own children, I wonder if what I was forced to endure helped me to achieve the level of success that I did. My children are more intelligent, but less capable. Success in school != Success in life.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

My children are more intelligent, but less capable. Success in school != Success in life.

Some of that may also be the school system falling down on the job. The schools of today could never have turned out the Apollo generation.