It takes two nerds
- It takes two nerds ››
- An Edge discussion in which Professor Simon Baron-Cohen details his assortative mating theory for the origin of autism[31]. Several luminaries then pass comment. He proposes that a child is more likely to be autistic if both parents are "systematizers", meaning that the parents carry genes for, and are possibly themselves, analytical, less empathic, so-called male-typicals who play with cars and are good at spatial reasoning. Dad being already statistically predisposed to be interested in statistics and engineering and navigating through 3D space, Baron-Cohen thinks he has found that if mum is too, or if she carries genes that can contribute to such traits from grandad, this may provide the genetic basis of autism. The assortativeness comes from the hypothesis that the parents may select each other on the basis of preference for the very traits that confer the risk of autism (geeks love geeks). Not that it is all biology and predestination, he notes; in fact, the only inevitability is that this theory will be controversial. The luminaries concur by and large, praise his ambition, and go on to offer little further illumination. One attempts to critique another of Baron-Cohen's theories about autism (the hypermale theory) instead. Bizarrely, most of the female commentators bar one take issue with the seemingly simplistic categorizations of "systematizer" (male-typical) and "empathizer" (female-typical); does this in some way support his terminology and thesis, since his fellow male (-typical?) systematizers do not attack this point? (via)
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