marjaerwin

I believe that we must do more to treat autism and to investigate its causes. It is particularly tragic that the incidence of autism seems to be increasing dramatically while we do not have sufficient understanding of what causes the illness. We must pursue an aggressive research agenda to identify causes of autism while continuing to support better treatment for autism victims.

How on earth do you reach these people and make it clear that no, we do not want them to exterminate us, no, we do not regard ourselves as victims of our selfhood, no, no, NO!

(it's impossible to use our old logins, and it's impossible to register for new ones - perhaps some kind of software incompatability? - but it will not send the email to reset my password for my old account and will not send the email to set up my new account either.)

I thought I'd comment on these posts:

http://boingboing.net/2011/08/15/empirical-manners-towards-a-science-of-harmonious-norms.html

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2011/08/rewilding-etiquette.html

There are some nice ideas in there. But there are some nice-seeming ideas with vicious consequences too.

(on the primate level, how do eye contact, physical contact, and stance etc. contribute to establishing trust when meeting a stranger? You can study that)

They define neurotypicals as the norm, and everyone else as the other. A society which expects eye contact is a society which creates a neurodiverse underclass and defines that underclass as shifty and untrustworthy. A society which expects eye contact is likely to blind itself to the injustice, the apartheid, it creates in doing so.