Could Autism Be an Evolutionary Step Forward?
I’ve been thinking about something lately. What if autism isn’t really a “disorder,” but part of humanity’s next step in evolution?
We already know ADHD might’ve helped early humans quick to notice danger, quick to act, great for hunters and explorers. But in today’s world, the survival game has changed. We’re not running from lions anymore, we’re solving problems in physics, math, engineering, and technology. Maybe autism evolved to thrive here.
Autistic people often see the world through patterns, details, and systems. They notice what others miss, question what others accept, and focus so deeply that new discoveries can emerge. That kind of brain might struggle with small talk or social chaos, but it’s exactly the kind of mind that drives science forward.
Just think about the people throughout history who might’ve been on the spectrum. Some of these names are frequently mentioned as showing signs of being on the spectrum:
Isaac Newton, lost in thought, barely noticed the world around him yet he gave us the laws of motion.
Nikola Tesla, intensely sensitive and visionary, dreamed up wireless energy before anyone could imagine it.
Albert Einstein, who didn’t speak until age four, thought in visual patterns instead of words, and redefined reality itself.
Ludwig van Beethoven, hyper-focused and emotionally intense, turned sound into something transcendent.
Michelangelo and Lewis Carroll too, brilliant, obsessive, often isolated, yet they reshaped art and imagination forever.
If autism had been “fixed” or filtered out, we might never have had the light bulb, the symphony, or the theory of relativity.
And here’s the thing, our society is becoming more and more dependent on abstract reasoning and systems thinking. Artificial intelligence, quantum physics, data science, these are autistic strengths. The world is literally evolving toward the kind of thinking autistic minds have always done best.
So maybe autism isn’t a flaw at all. Maybe it’s an evolutionary feature, a sign that humanity keeps diversifying its ways of understanding reality.
I think it's time we stop viewing autism through the lens of deficit and start seeing it as part of the design, nature’s way of keeping the human story curious, creative, and kind of brilliant.
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Neuro typical, i.e. classic brain wiring. And wiring is what I think the OP is getting at. How different people's brains process information. Thing is, there isn't some neat, tidy box called autistic or neuro typical. Nature abhors neat, tidy boxes and so do I. We're on a continuum. And like any other species, we're still experiencing evolutionary pressures. The OP may very well be correct, since there is a hereditary aspect to varying degrees of autism.
I have some Asperger tendencies, though that terminology isn't used clinically any more. Yet, in other ways, I lean neuro typical. Since elementary school I thought I was a bit different than my classmates. We just didn't think the same way. Perhaps that is why I'm good at math, science, engineering, pretty much anything to do with spatial reasoning and numbers.
I am by no means a people person but can be when I need to be. I function socially like anyone else, but find those things exhausting after a while. Generally, I'm not known for being very "nice" in the conventional sense, unless it's with people I know well. I'm blunt and direct, yet have a strong sense of affective empathy. I do have an innate sense of right, wrong, fairness (generally strong with those on the spectrum), and the good sense to know that much of where each of us are in life is due to probabilities and the birth lottery. That last sentence makes me a life long Democrat, but perhaps from a slightly different direction than others. Plus, Mom's "but for the grace of God, go you." 
Elmo may have autistic tendencies, but there's much more to it. He's also very narcissistic and perhaps a sociopath. Those are totally different conditions from autism.
in a certain % of the population. Not terribly different from homosexuality or transgenderism. It serves the species survival chances to produce a certain % of the population that exhibits these personality characteristics. Just as it does to have a certain % be "conservative" (i.e. strongly competition-driven) and a certain % be "liberal" (i.e. more cooperation-driven).
And when I say 'the population' I do not mean strictly in the 'human population'. I believe that if it were studied in earnest, it would be discovered there are 'autistic' individuals in the entire Great Ape family (which include hominids such as us of course), and quite possibly dating even much further back in the evolutionary chain. Could be we'd find there are "autistic" dolphins & whales too, if we could devise a proper test for it.
Ergo, I don't think it's an "evolutionary step-forward for humanity", because I believe the general phenomenon very likely pre-dates humanity altogether.
Which of course makes RFK Jr's stupid bullshit feel even MORE like stupid bullshit to me personally than it might to the average person 
Novel mutations are happening all the time. The engine of evolution. Autism may not be a step forward for humans, but there is a genetic component so it is a step. A set of interesting mutations. Where it leads, who knows? Perhaps it does give some humans a competitive leg up. Maybe not. Perhaps a road that leads nowhere. There's been billions of those.
As for Junior, he's got the grifter mutation. And some serious machinery damage from that brain worm. 
And I am personally of the belief that we do not know all there is to uncover about the mysteries of evolution as a whole. I think we're likely to find that, while mutations themselves are more or less random, the EXPRESSION of genes may be much more flexible than we previously thought. IOW, there may be a bit more to evolution than simply "the fittest survive to procreate".
I think we'll find out that environmental factors can impact gene expression, potentially even from one generation to the next. I think all creatures have 'dormant' features in their genome that can shift towards expression or non-expression based on what happens during the lives of the individuals. Now, I know this has been thought of as "fringe" in the past, but my bet is that it will be discovered to be not only possible, but possibly even common.
Just to give a very simple example, and I am NOT suggesting I'm "right" about this particular one thing, but this is to illustrate the general concept. A species begins to run out of resources (food, water, and productive territory) due to population overshoot. So the % of individuals who end up being asexual, or homosexual, begins to increase. The 'gene' for the behavior is already there, maybe from 10 million years and 10 species prior, but conditions/environment stress can trigger a shift in the expression of the gene, long down the evolutionary chain from when it first evolved.
Just my pet personal theory, this may be incorrect of course 
But that is many people's perception of what the term means 
