Humans
are special. A chimp is utterly unable to do intellectual tasks that a human child does effortlessly. Since our brains are different, of course, we will have conditions a chimp does not and chimps will have issues that we don't. There will also be many shared conditions.
Chimps are equally special, just different. They do things humans cannot. A human child would not survive long in chimp-world, no matter how much maternal care it got.
I was not impressed by Skinner as a teenager because he didn't discuss instinctive behaviors. These are not easily modified by rewards, learning, or by manipulating the environment. (If you are gay, you are gay and there's no changing that.) However, in the 70s, it was popular to believe that humans were born with nearly clean slates, and behavior beyond the first year or two was entirely due to learning. It was a way of telling ourselves that we weren't animals. (This is also a fundamental tenet of Marxism. If humans are inherently selfish and competitive regardless of their environment, large-scale communism doesn't work.)
He did have a lot of interesting ideas, but they were often impractical.
https://neuroclastic.com/why-autism-aba-goes-against-everything-b-f-skinner-believed-in/
This is something I found very interesting. "Polygenic risk" describes my multiple gene/Bell curve theory but doesn't specifically argue for balanced polymorphism.
I admit that I can be a bit reactive when it comes to these things.
I have spent most of my life trying to understand what it means to be “broken”, “disordered”, atypical, special needs, autistic and ADHD. 20 years ago, I met a younger person who spoke the language of my mind.
This led me to question my differences and see it as part of a pattern. I have worked on a theoretical framework for the past 20 years that is predictive.
This framework helped me to have a loving and healthy relationship. This is something I see all people on the spectrum being able to have.
The models predict most human behavior from war to the challenges we face on the spectrum.
Humans are special in that they think they are special. Biology isn’t concerned with being special. It is concerned with function.
Humans are not functional at this point, primarily because we think we are special. I don’t need to remind anyone here of how we destroy our environment or label people different from us.
Humans build tribes based on identity. The most primal building block of human culture is superiority and victimization. This is actually one thing that takes two words to say.
Special, superior yet victimized by the others not like us. Ego, identity and culture are bound together.
The “cause” of autism is constantly debated. When viewing it as a “disorder” we cannot see its function. Humans have a “pre-eusocial” survival strategy. We have different types of humans that are part of this survival strategy.
The models predict autism to be epigenetic. I call it “extra cultural”. We are not supposed to be comfortable in our own “tribe”. We are part of the “order” not a disorder.
Polymorphism is life because life has memory. That memory is part and parcel of function. Function and form are part of a type of stuff that reacts to its environment. This stuff is life.
Humans are living and have function. We also have technology that changes our environment in ways that we functionally were not evolved for.
Autistic people are the generators of most technology. We have an “important” place in this world
Adding a bit here about balance polymorphism:
Yes, there are “genetic memories” previous forms that can be dysfunctional, non-functional or functional when expressed. DNA is a type of environmental memory.
It makes sense that these genetic traits can exist unexpressed in most people but are expressed in others to detrimental effect in others. At some point, the environment may again change allowing these traits to become functional and their expression will be “chosen for”.
I feel that “autism” (what I call extra cultural) itself is actually expressed based on social/environmental factors in a tribe.
Some expressions are functional and some are more dysfunctional within the environment.
The human functional environment is tribal culture. The current state of most human environment is national/regional culture which is not what we evolved for. This leads to dysfunction.
Gangs are simply groups of humans that re-tribal-ize under extreme stress.
War, racism and oppression come directly from the human survival strategy.
My tribe is superior to yours… you take the resources that my tribe needs so we band together tightly in our culture to prevent or avenge our victimization (loss of resources) Different types of humans with different types of brains are part of this strategy.
Autism plays a role in genetic health of tribes through refreshing of genes in foreign tribes (we leave our birth tribe/get kicked out and find a new one without bringing culture with us). We are also involved in tribal splitting and formation of new cultures.
These genes express themselves in functional ways in the tribal environment.
Humans are all dysfunctional in a non-tribal environment. One word: war.
The idea of balance polymorphism is fully in line with the theoretical models I have worked on.
