Autism rates now 1 in 68 U.S. children: CDC

[kmlisle]

22. I have been thinking about this possibility for a while now

If Autism is a a genetic condition that is affected by multiple alleles (ie many genes combine to produce this and other types of social and mental behaviors) then the Autism spectrum makes sense because there are many combinations of genes that create that spectrum. Think hair and skin color and you will begin to get the idea here. Those are also multiple alleles and recombining the genes produces a lot of variability and a spectrum of traits. This also means that if there is an advantage for a person with Autism in modern society then the folks on the end of the spectrum that allows them to function reasonably well socially posses other advantageous abilities and represent selective pressure for that personality type and for those genes. Think engineers and scientists and IT types and you will have the group in your sights. That's a lot of people in the Creative Class who do well in modern environments. If more and more of these people are surviving well and reproducing then their children's genes will fall somewhere on the spectrum and the variations will produce more at both ends of that spectrum.

I think the position of the autism web site above is also an excellent comment on modern society as it gets more rigid and intolerant of children who don't fit its cookie cutter molds (think ed reform which really veers in this direction). Diversity is strength in nature not weakness. we are more prepared for coming changes as a human population when diversity is honored and accepted. And we obviously are not defining the advantages of autism along with its disadvantages in the current rigid world view.

Its just natural selection at work!