Autism: Evolution?

Ok...hear me out. First things first, signs and symptoms of Autism:


No babbling or pointing by age 1
No single words by 16 months or two-word phrases by age 2
No response to name
Loss of language or social skills
Poor eye contact
Excessive lining up of toys or objects
No smiling impaired ability to make friends with peers
Absence or impairment of imaginative and social play
Stereotyped, repetitive, or unusual use of language
Restricted patterns of interest that are abnormal in intensity or focus
Preoccupation with certain objects or subjects
Inflexible adherence to specific routines or rituals or social responsiveness


Ok, keep all this in mind.

When was the first diagnosis of Autism?

Donald Grey Triplett, born in 1936

Donald Grey Triplett

What happened in the thirties?

John Baird was just getting broadcasting started on the first black and white televisions.

John Logie Baird commentated in the first black and white television production in 1936.

Baird

When did Autism rates start to surge?

Autism was first described as a unique disorder in the 1940s. In the early 1990s, autism diagnoses began to soar. In the 10 years between 1993 and 2003, the number of American schoolchildren with autism diagnoses increased by over 800%.

Autism History

When did the internet become common place?

It is generally agreed that the Internet broke into the public's consciousness in the United States in the mid-late 1990s, during the boom and subsequent bust of its economy, and well before the recovery and sustainable growth which has propelled it from 2001 to the date of this article in mid 2009.

Internet Popularity

Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California.

Myspace

When was Facebook created?

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook Inc.[1] As of February 2012, Facebook has more than 845 million active users.

Facebook


Let's look at all of this combined. Autism is being diagnosed first of all in the 40's after the invention and broadcasting of the first televisions. The rates begin to rise in the early 90's, in the same timeframe that the internet becomes mainstream. The complete explosion of Autism happens between 1993-2003 in the general time frame of Facebook and Myspace.

The Process of Evolution It is possible for the DNA of an organism to occasionally change, or mutate. A mutation changes the DNA of an organism in a way that affects its offspring, either immediately or several generations down the line. The change brought about by a mutation is either beneficial, harmful or neutral. If the change is harmful, then it is unlikely that the offspring will survive to reproduce, so the mutation dies out and goes nowhere. If the change is beneficial, then it is likely that the offspring will do better than other offspring and so will reproduce more. Through reproduction, the beneficial mutation spreads. The process of culling bad mutations and spreading good mutations is called natural selection. As mutations occur and spread over long periods of time, they cause new species to form. Over the course of many millions of years, the processes of mutation and natural selection have created every species of life that we see in the world today, from the simplest bacteria to humans and everything in between.

Evolution

Why could evolution occur? Simplest answer, for survival of the species. Things not needed, lost. Things needed, created. Not necessarily beneficial, especially if engineered specifically to regress the process.

With television and computer usage, we spend less face to face time talking. Especially with the invention of the internet, we do much less social interacting than once before. Wheras we may once get together and hunt, or knit, now we just get online a lot. One could argue that the increasing use of non-verbal and non-one-on-one conversations could actually (Evolutionarily speaking) make these qualities unnecessary to our survival. I mean really, how many people do you look in the eye on a daily basis?

It is also noteworthy here that a lot of Autistic children and adults do really well with video games, computer programs, and keyboards in order to communicate. I experience this personally with my own child. Does that make you suspicious? It definitely makes me wonder.

Now speaking of this from an evolutionary outlook, it would be an incredibly fast change if you look back on the time lines in evolutionary theory. Usually changes would not occur so rapidly. However, our technological advances have increased so rapidly, it begs the question...could our evolution be increasing at the same rate?

Now to take you down an even more interesting road...
What if it's all engineered? The television, the internet, the social networking sites...to do just this? Perhaps TPTB have it all engineered in some combination of Environmental Pollutants, Vaccines, Television, Internet...who knows. No one can argue that it has dumbed us down. I do not feel as though Autistic children are dumb in any way, I have one, he is brilliant, so I am not saying that. I just find the timelines of technology and increase in Autism to be suspicious and unnerving, to say the least.

Thoughts?

lack of social interactive skills would make procreation more difficult....population control??

Originally posted by BadBoYeed
lack of social interactive skills would make procreation more difficult....population control??

This could absolutely be one of the many reasons. If we follow this thought process through all mental "abnormalities"...it gets disturbing.

Well, I took your advice, OP. I read the whole thing...then I read it again. I'm glad I did..I was thinking very different thoughts when I opened it based on headline alone.


I wonder...if you might actually be on to something. Hmm.. Your citing of dates, circumstances and periods of change in the condition leads me to at least give your idea some serious thought with the other possible causes I've heard to explain my Son's condition.

Your post gets me to thinking as well. Evolution... Well, what if your 100% right with this, but with a slight change. Who ever said evolution is always FORWARD..and a GOOD thing? Evolutionary changes must occasionally go in all different directions of progress..or lack of. Nature can't know which direction is the best one and outside pressure wouldn't always nudge things in the most healthy direction for changes.

So... Going entirely by your OP and numbers, what if something in the environment has always been behind causing this? Small numbers..when it was strictly something encountered in the natural world by a small % of kids at just the wrong age of development. Perhaps the mother in the same freak set of circumstances to a purely natural element. Then, unknowingly, we've used whatever that "magic" natural factor/element has always been in something TOTALLY unrelated...but ubiquitous. It would have to be an ingredient used in something VERY widespread, right? Hmmm... That narrows it down...to 10's of thousands of possibilities. Ugh.

Well... I'll say this. You earned the Star and Flag... You've got my noodle to cooking here and I feel the need to run off and do some serious research on a new theory.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Well, I took your advice, OP. I read the whole thing...then I read it again. I'm glad I did..I was thinking very different thoughts when I opened it based on headline alone.


I wonder...if you might actually be on to something. Hmm.. Your citing of dates, circumstances and periods of change in the condition leads me to at least give your idea some serious thought with the other possible causes I've heard to explain my Son's condition.

Your post gets me to thinking as well. Evolution... Well, what if your 100% right with this, but with a slight change. Who ever said evolution is always FORWARD..and a GOOD thing? Evolutionary changes must occasionally go in all different directions of progress..or lack of. Nature can't know which direction is the best one and outside pressure wouldn't always nudge things in the most healthy direction for changes.

So... Going entirely by your OP and numbers, what if something in the environment has always been behind causing this? Small numbers..when it was strictly something encountered in the natural world by a small % of kids at just the wrong age of development. Perhaps the mother in the same freak set of circumstances to a purely natural element. Then, unknowingly, we've used whatever that "magic" natural factor/element has always been in something TOTALLY unrelated...but ubiquitous. It would have to be an ingredient used in something VERY widespread, right? Hmmm... That narrows it down...to 10's of thousands of possibilities. Ugh.

Well... I'll say this. You earned the Star and Flag... You've got my noodle to cooking here and I feel the need to run off and do some serious research on a new theory.

Thank you very much for taking the time to digest it all. I have been wracking my brain lately to figure out why the sudden surge in Autism. When I looked up the date of the surge I instantly recognized it as when the internet went viral, which spawned the rest of this research. Anything you dig up or would like to add would be greatly appreciated... I do agree with you, there are a lot of questions and discussions that can be spawned from this idea to maybe have a greater understanding of the epidemic.

Wrabbit-

Another little tidbit to get you thinking...
We evolve for the earth, then we effect the earth (environmental toxins etc), which then means that we are evolving from a combination of the earth and what we have done to it.

At what point do we step in and say...we have changed our evolutionary track for the worst and now we have to fix it?

Your idea has me intrigued. Over time, social interaction in person is becoming less and less common while social interaction online increases....

So we are still interacting, we are just changing the way in which we communicate... One could argue that we don't need the same social skills we did in the past. Technology has changed in a way that gives us access to all the information in the world (Generally speaking) and it has changed the way in which we communicate.

Our old way of communicating is becoming obsolete... And maybe it is beginning to show? Is autism the beginning of a new stage in evolution? I don't know.... I don't think it is anything that was planned or purposeful as another member seems to have suggested.

Very interesting theory though.

It does make me wonder about myself. Not to say I am autistic. I am not...I just find that I am much more open and social online, then I am in real life. In real life, I am rather introverted.

reply to post by ValentineWiggin


First of all, love your thread. I think it is a very interesting parallel you've drawn. I don't think that autism is necessarily linked to the changes in communication. I certainly don't believe it is being engineered. One thing you're thread made me think about was the driving force behind technological advancement. Perhaps those with autism got into computers, then tried to create a medium to express themselves.

At what point do we step in and say...we have changed our evolutionary track for the worst and now we have to fix it?

Are we worse off? I believe humanity is growing, getting better. The more interconnected different groups become, I think the more we will begin to understand each other, and the more we understand each other, the less hate we will have.

reply to post by ValentineWiggin


Autism is more diagnosed because the criteria to diagnose it has increased. I think there's something to the neuro-diversity view, but not everyone with autism is some hyperspecialized rain-man. There are ends of the spectrum that are in no way beneficial. Any type of diversity can be selected for or against by evolution, so yea I'm sure it will play a role, but I don't think autism is some direction we're moving toward as a species.

reply to post by ValentineWiggin

At what point do we step in and say...we have changed our evolutionary track for the worst and now we have to fix it?

good question but....

Evolution is a painfully slow process, sure, we are obviously messing with some variables, but it would take thousands or millions of years for an evolutionary change related to what we have done to take place.

your theory on autism is quite interesting, you've obviously spent some time compiling all of this data. Correlation does not mean causation, but it should be looked into.

You mention specifically the rise of social media, tv, etc. How, by what mechanism, would this be affecting a young child who doesn't even have the cognitive abilities to even understand or use social media?

People are quick to jump on tv as being bad, and in this case, it might just be that, very bad. Autism is a social disorder, the people with it don't have the same social concepts we have, some of them never really experience our reality, they live in their own.

Sitting a child down, from a young age, and using the tv as a baby sitter can't possibly promote social interaction, TV is a spectator sport. In fact, certain types of programs actually change your brain waves.

Very interesting thread, well done.

The Secret of the Bees

People who do not easily interact with other people, but can do complex and mundane tasks...sounds like drones.

devolution
the ultimate divide and conqure
now your immune systen is fighting your own body
now your people have an extra casualty to care for
now the peole causing this are richer for the resources you lose throughout the process

part of what is ment by the creation of battlefield homeland...

reply to post by ValentineWiggin


Thought you might find this study relevant:

Peer Reviewed Study Links Autism To Industrial Food And Environment

A new study by Clinical Epigenetics, a peer-reviewed journal that focuses largely on diseases, has found that the rise in autism in the United States could be linked to the industrial food system, specifically the prevalence of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in the American diet. The study, published yesterday online, explores how mineral deficiencies could impact how the human body rids itself of common toxic chemicals like mercury and pesticides. The report comes just after a different report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, documenteda startling rise in autism in the United States.

Another piece of the puzzle? Talks directly to your point of manipulating the environment.

I don't see how such a trait is being selected for through natural or sexual selection. I'm not fully caffeinated, but are you saying that the allele(s) that cause autism confer some advantage through autism itself and are being selected for, or are tied to an allele that confers an advantage and are hitchhiking their way into our population?

I guess I don't see how autism is giving anyone a better chance at passing their genes on. I've assumed that people with autism are reproducing at a much slower rate than people without it.

Interesting theory. Many things correspond to this timeline also, such as dual-income households, a reduction in both the size of families and whether extended family lives under the same roof, and the usage of pitocin as a method of interjecting some convenience into the age-old question of when the baby will be delivered. Pitocin, used to induce labor, creates far-stronger contractions and inhibits the natural cascade of neurotransmitters, such as oxytocin and serotonin, begun by mom during labor and passed to child upon delivery.

Take a look at what big pharma created so that the OB/GYN could schedule a guilt-free vacation and dad could ask off from work for the big day. THAT's the elephant in the room, in my opinion. If you haven't fallen across this concept, check this Autism Today article here.

Perhaps autism is the result of a convergence of several phenomena, but for me, inspecting drugs and their direct effect on biochemistry, especially when usage of a drug corresponds with a medical condition, is a sound starting block.

My best to your and your little one - I hope he understands how fortunate he is to have such a proactive, concerned mom who is determined to provide the best care and most understanding possible.

I have a 19-year old son with autism. I too have wracked my brain looking for answers. The key thing for me is the savant abilities of some. My son's social skills are severely hampered, but he taught himself to read music and play the piano. He masters video games incredibly fast. This indicates to me the hidden potential of the human brain which would also signal that it may very well be part of the evolutionary process, related to the alleged upcoming "quantum" shift in consciousness related to the ancient astrological prophecies. I believe it is mostly DNA related, but there are so many varying degrees of autism and Asperger's that I think it would be foolish to rule out causes such as those suggested in the OP.

By the way, thanks.

I first came across this idea of autism being related to evolution in a Kryon channeling.... here's a discussion of it:

www.paganspace.net...

I think you found a chunk of the reason behind some of the changes that's happened to our species over the last eight decades, but there's much more.

Think about the use of petroleum which went through the roof in the 1930's, and all the petrochemicals that were mass produced starting in the early 1940's.

Think about the widespread use of GM foods in the early 1990's.

Think about the increase in vaccinations over the decades.

Think about the electromagnetic pollution that has increased over the decades.

Basically, there are many vectors interacting in ways we are yet to know.

I think it's interesting to think that the potential for mutation has increased astronomically at the same time that the need for it has increased. It's kinda funny how things seem to work out, sometimes.

It's as if all these sources gave the potential to mutate in any which way, but the technological advancements shaped the effects of these changes in such a way that we did, indeed, evolve a bit.



Oh, I must speak of something else. I noted a few cool connections a while back after reading a study about the link between homosexuality and pollution. It was found that homosexuality in rats who were born in a trash dump was much higher than rats in a less polluted environment. I then noticed that homosexuals are much more likely to be left-handed and "right brained". Last I noticed that the "right brain" was often thought to be more experimentally oriented, and creative...what have you....

I put all this together and thought that it was an alternative function for our species, when times get rough, to have a higher percentage of people be experimental, creative, genius, etc...maybe autism is rising as a natural feedback to the environmental pollution, and this type of thing has happened many times in the past, except because of technology being the way it is now, it's manifesting a little differently

something to chew on

reply to post by ValentineWiggin


One part of the puzzle you may have overlooked is the popularity of the VCR in the 90's when the greatest increase came about. Parents would use the TV as a "babysitter" to keep their children mesmerized watching taped shows like Barney while they got chores done around the house. By the 90's, everyone had one in their house and who hasn't heard stories of kids raised by the television?

Children learned that the TV was more entertaining than real life and may have drifted away from real-life social interactions.

The big question is whether this was all planned by TPTB or purely an accident caused by increasing technology.