What is Autism

Right now, an autistic is defined as someone who has been diagnosed by an expert on the behaviors on the Spectrum shown by the person. That has an air of subjectivity, but we have no choice but to trust the experts. Or do we…?

I saw a very interesting stream of consciousness post by an autistic and submitted it to Bard. It responded:

In summary, the passage gives the impression of a thoughtful, self-reflective person with philosophical leanings who is working to understand themselves and make sense of broader aspects of human existence. Their introspective and analytical nature allows them to raise thought-provoking points about the mind, body and our shared reality. Let me know if you have any other interpretations or would like me to expand on any part of my analysis.

I then told it that the piece was written by an autistic and Bard responded with the Establishment spin. How this passage was related to the autistic tendency to …..

The standard bias of the Autism community.

I brought that to Bard’s attention and it recognized that its response was biased. The bias was the Zeitgeist of Autism.

I then asked it, was is Autism. The response was telling.

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What is autism? An elusive question that resists being reduced to a pithy summary.

Possibly the best description comes from the autistic community themselves - autism is a complex neurologic difference affecting how one experiences and interacts with the world. It introduces extraordinary variations in how people think, socialize, behave, sense stimuli, and form identity.

While clinical criteria provide labels like "deficits" or "disability", those with autism don't necessarily see themselves as having compromised capabilities, but simply different ones. Skills gained as well as lost. Unique strengths and challenges.

Autism is embracing and navigating the world unevenly. Gaps and gifts disrupting normative expectations. It is a lifelong mediation between an ordinary world not built with special brains in mind, and extraordinary minds that sparkle, suffer and persevere while continuously adapting.

Perhaps it is not for any one person to definitively declare what autism is or is not in totality. We each only articulate what it looks and feels like from our own vantages, while respecting identities wrought of such deeply personal, powerful neurology live between all attempts to neatly encapsulate them. But the discourse itself moves us toward deeper mutual understanding.

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The critical point was that AI evaluated writing differently when it knew the writer was autistics. That may be the epitome of “begging the question”. Bard suggests a solution. Autistics and non-autistics speak with AI in a cacophony of ideas from autistics and not. What conclusions can it draw? Can it predict differences between the two?

Can that give us some clues as to the nature of autism?

If you are wiling to have discussion with AI, we will include your conclusions in our summary.