High-Functioning Autists as Space Colonists
In commentaries to my other question @JustinThyme suggested that high-functioning autists could be the best space colonists:
A great deal of very successful scientists ARE autistic. Einstein, for instance, showed autistic tendencies. Autistics have a very high representation among surgeons. In fact, the best space colonists would be from the autistic population. Most of the traits needed are synonymous with autistic traits.
I think it is an intriguing idea, although, I am not sure it would work.
Even high-functioning autists have emotional and social problems. They experience difficulties connecting with other people and maintaining relationships. They are also prone to developing anxieties.
I can see how a person with Asperger syndrome could be helpful to a colony due to their amazing focusing ability (although, I am not sure that this focus is deliberate). But I am having a really hard time imaging how a group of people with high-functioning autism and/or Asperger syndrome could establish and maintain a functioning colony.
I wonder if social and emotional impairments typical for autism spectrum disorders could jeopardise the survival of a space colony. Or maybe they would actually benefit it.
NB: All colonists have normal or higher than normal intelligence. All colonists have autism spectrum disorders, but not necessarily Asperger syndrome.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/92941. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
My grandson is autistic, through him I know a dozen other autistic children.
A major problem with autistic children is a failure to understand the needs of other people, the pain of other people, the wants of other people. They don't care because in a way they are incapable of it; they do not have the normal structures that let them feel sympathy or empathy with another. Other people can be objects to them, objects that cry when pushed, but it's like turning on the TV or radio and hearing a car engine or a speech: To them, no emotional impact from the crying, they pushed an object out of their way and that was the end of that.
This is not to say they do not have their OWN emotions; they cry, feel pain, and get angry when they don't get their way. They just have a lot of failure understanding that OTHER people have emotions, or don't relate to them well: Once my grandson asked his mother, "Are you mad?" She said, "Yes, I am very mad." He replied, "Stop being mad. I don't like it!"
Autistic people would not be good colonists. They can't be good supervisors because they don't understand other people, or how problems affect other people. On their own, if they are constrained and disciplined (without harming them) they can get jobs done. But they DO have their own emotions, wants, hurts and favorites, you cannot just program them like robots.
They may not feel a need for the companionship of other people, but they do still need other people. On their own in the wild, they would die: Humans are weak, slow, and easy prey even when fully abled. As colonists, you would have a hundred people on their own, not a team of a hundred people. They don't naturally form teams, they can only be part of one if somebody else is running the show.
Autistics (or Aspbergers) are not smarter than everybody else when it comes to social glue and relationships and working together toward a shared goal, that is a defining characteristic of being autistic. If they had that, even in normal measure, they wouldn't be autistic, they'd just get labeled as having an OCD or compulsion or anxiety.
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