Mastodawn

So one of the things that has always confused and frustrated me about the autistic experience (even long before I knew I am autistic!) is the way allistic people feel, to me, like they are constantly over-simplifying everything.

The past week or so, I've been kicking around a hypothesis with my partner (they are also autistic), and I think together we've stumbled onto something big.

We're beginning to suspect that allistic brains do this as a protection mechanism, automatically and unconsciously, much like our heartbeats. It's a way to avoid overwhelm.

Just like we might rely on noise cancelling headphones to not get overwhelmed by sounds, I think allistic brains naturally reduce ideas to simpler forms to prevent getting overwhelmed by details and complexity.

(This is really a much bigger thing than fits into a single post, but that's a good preview of the larger cascade of understanding we've been unleashing lately.)

#ActuallyAutistic

anilmc Jun 25, 2023

@mordremoth I'm probably almost totally allistic but i think you're onto something, specifically "delegation to subconscious" which happens with physiological processes like breathing, and heartbeats, but also taxonomies and categorisation, muscle memory, rules and habits, etc etc. I guess I wonder whether it's effective at the purpose of preventing overwhelm, and whether the function itself is better performed as a result. I play basketball, and the auto pop shot is much more accurate!

Amelia Jun 25, 2023

@anilmc I think it depends! (Lol, that's a very autistic thing to say, I know.)

For *many* aspects of day to day life, I think this efficient, automatic, simplified approach *is* an advantage. It saves energy (brains are notoriously expensive to operate, biologically speaking), it saves time, and in a lot of situations, the details actually don't matter that much, if at all.

There are of course *some* situations where this is a liability, but I suspect that they are fairly rare, even though my own personal autistic inclination is to always care about the details.

I think the real win comes when we find ways to get allistic brains handling the stuff where the details don't matter, and autistic brains on the complicated/nuanced bits.

In other words, I bet all of us work better together... if we can find ways to play to our respective strengths!

AutisticTeacherGriff Jun 25, 2023

@mordremoth Fascinated by this hypothesis. Where can I read more about your work on it?

Amelia Jun 25, 2023

@TeacherGriff Right now this has all been happening in our phone conversations. We're talking about writing something more in-depth as we are able, but they're splitting time between their full time job and schooling, and I operate on limited spoons, so it may be a while coming.

I'm really glad to know this is resonating for you though!

AutisticTeacherGriff Jun 25, 2023

@mordremoth Hope you don't mind a follow - very interested in what you're working on, as you can see.

Improv Jun 25, 2023

@mordremoth
Yes, that rings true. And don't they just hate it when you try to slow things down and think it through, or point out to them that what they just said isn't quite right.

And a problem with my reply is that I said "they" when arguably I should have said "we". So what does that say about me?

Well, this wasn't about me, so I'll leave that thought on hold and return to your idea. There must be an evolutionary advantage to BOTH working it out thoroughly for accuracy AND simplifying for speed and convenience. Either can get eaten by the tiger, depending in the circumstances. And it is in the interests of the species to maintain diversity so that, in any given scenario, a decent number survive to reproduce.

Nice! I hope I understood your toot. I like the cascade it started over here!

Amelia Jun 25, 2023

@afwesty Yep, that's it exactly - both styles are important, in different cases. We really all shine best when we work together, even though society today is often set up in ways that keep us at odds.

Improv Jun 25, 2023

@mordremoth
So true.

mauvedeity Jun 25, 2023

@mordremoth that’s a really interesting idea. I know that learning to drive for me was in part a process of learning to ignore irrelevant detail, which is that simplifying process you talk about. Thanks for sharing, you’ve given me something to think about.

Photo Ewen 📷Jun 26, 2023

Two connections I'd like you consider.

First is the tendency for humans to use substitution to solve problems. When presented with a difficult calculation our brains look for a simpler one that requires less effort to answer. Less energy. Less time. Less accuracy too, but that's usually ok. So simplifying the input is very much on par with how a human brain is designed.

Second thought. Introvert vs extrovert. I see a lot extroverts just ignore most input anyway.

Photo Ewen 📷Jun 26, 2023

Susan Cain wrote a marvellous book on the difference between introvert and extrovert minds. Quiet. How much information they take in and can filter out was a key part of the story.

Was a fabulous book for me when it arrived in my life. Made me feel I wasn't just a failure at life, but in some ways our society has been hijacked by the loud people and is seriously failing me (and the rest of the folk like me).

Amelia Jun 26, 2023

@ewen Your first connection is actually a big part of our hypothesis, yes! Not enough room to get into it in that initial post, but the fact that huge chunks of neuroanatomy exhibit this sort of "simplify/abstract" funnel is a key piece of it all.

The visual cortex is perhaps the best studied example of this (at least that I'm aware of), and it was actually research on the differences between autistic and allistic face recognition that led us to our insight. TLDR allistic people tend to process the entire face as a unit, and autistic people tend to process it as a collection of dozens of details. It's a key part of why eye contact is so often hard for us.

The second point I think is also very much in the same spirit, and in general I agree... although I can't help but voice my autistic reaction that the introvert/extrovert dichotomy is, in and of itself, a classic example of excessive simplification of highly complex phenomena ;-)

Photo Ewen 📷Jun 26, 2023

Generally speaking, I oversimplify everything!

Amras / Sarma Jul 1, 2023

@mordremoth This correlates with a handful of conversations I've had this year; summarizing here.

The conversations started from how useful #dialectics can be. In particular, how useful it can be to hold several contradicting ideas in one's mind while reasoning:

In a complex world, any useful model will find contradictions, and any honest approach should have tools to explore those contradictions.

(1/2)

Amras / Sarma Jul 1, 2023

@mordremoth A more common response to observing contradiction is to select a self-consistent model and discard abberant data. If accepting contradictions is useful, why is it rare?

My best guess to date is that reasoning through #cognitiveDissonance is simply exhausting. Compared to the alternative, it requires more time and energy. Maybe (for some) the objective is not honesty or truth, but efficient and consistent reasoning.

But this guess doesn't feel correct or complete yet.
(2/2)

Amelia Jul 1, 2023

@amras I think that is a small piece of it, yes, but there is a much more significant missing piece when it comes to why people tend to reject data in this way (selecting for existing understanding).

Under white supremacy culture (particularly in the sense in which Tema Okun et.al. use the term), we are actively conditioned to rely on this specific bias, via what's referred to as "either/or thinking" - aka a fixation on false binaries.

Of crucial importance, many cultures (both in the world now, and historically) embrace plurality of ideas and possibilities when it comes to thinking.

I've written at length about this and the importance of actively rejecting the tendency to boil down everything to simple/familiar options, and how this (natural) neurological desire for efficient understanding is co-opted to serve systemic oppression: https://starshipgender.com/booleans-considered-garbage

Booleans Considered Garbage

I couldn’t resist the title of this post. I’ll take a moment to explain it properly, because it is a silly computer programming joke, but...

Trans-Mission Logs of the Starship Gender