On correlation, causation, and the "real" cause of autism.

[hunter]

18. Hah!

The "autism" genes in my family are very clearly genetic.

Those autistics with marketable obsessions did okay, those autistics without marketable obsessions were hidden away in the closet.

One of my grandfathers had two successful careers, first as an Army Air Force officer, then as an aerospace engineer. Some of the titanium parts in the Apollo Project are his. My grandfather was functional at work, he knew metal, especially "exotic" metals like titanium, but his personal life was always a soap opera catastrophe. Two of his siblings were not functional at all in ordinary society and were subsidized and sheltered by family. The ability to live alone, to avoid entanglements with the law, to walk to the grocery store and buy food, wearing somewhat appropriate clothing... that was celebrated as "success!"

I'm a diagnosed Asperger's kid (now autistic spectrum.) Occasionally my obsessions are marketable, I have some useful skills. But for my first quarter century on this planet I had quite a few obsessions that complicated my life, including one that demanded I undo my rotations in time-space. (Don't ask me to explain.)

I'm no expert but it seems to me any "increase" in autism rates is attributable to the closet doors being opened.