98.09.23 It's the Medium, Stupid Amidst all the clamor over the Starr Report, one Webzine reminds us what journalism on the Net was supposed to promise. 98.09.16 Psychotherapy on the Net Boldly going where Freud never went. 98.09.10 Celebrity Trades With the market in turmoil, the only safe bets may be at the box office. 98.09.02 There's Something About Harry How a twenty-six-year-old college dropout became the king of "film geeks" -- and the bane of big Hollywood studios. 98.08.20 The Second Coming Jesus and Elvis meet Dolly. 98.08.12 New Definition A preview of the Oxford English Dictionary's electronic edition points the way to a new kind of reference work. 98.08.05 The Lolita Effect What Vladimir Nabokov and Bill Clinton have in common. 98.07.30 Normandy: 1944 As Saving Private Ryan sweeps the country, learn about the reality behind the celluloid images. 98.07.22 Investigating the Renaissance An interactive exhibit shows how digital imaging can reveal a painting's secrets. For more, see the complete Web Citations Index. |
Neurodiversity September 30, 1998 ![]() The ISNT is a parody of the many institutes and journals devoted to the study of autism. The site gives geeks space to emerge from the neurological closet and declare themselves to be high-functioning autistic (HFA) as opposed to neurologically typical (NT). Until recently, NTs have had the privilege of believing that their form of wiring was the standard for the human brain. ISNT wants to make it clear that this will no longer be held to be self-evident. Muskie, the site's Webmaster and herself a high-functioning autistic, declares: "Neurotypical syndrome is a neurobiological disorder characterized by preoccupation with social concerns, delusions of superiority, and obsession with conformity." ![]() The common assumption in cognitive studies these days is that the human brain is the most complicated two-and-a-half pounds of matter in the known universe. With so much going on in a brain, the argument goes, the occasional bug is inevitable: hence autism and other departures from the neurological norm. ISNT suggests another way of looking at this. Neurodiversity may be every bit as crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in general. Who can say what form of wiring will prove best at any given moment? Cybernetics and computer culture, for example, may favor a somewhat autistic cast of mind. That would lend neurological significance to Jon Katz's foregrounding of Geek Force. And it would make ISNT's argument for neurodiversity not only timely but quite possibly irresistible. Discuss this Web Citation in the Technology & Digital Culture conference of Post & Riposte. Harvey Blume contributes regularly to Atlantic Unbound. Copyright © 1998 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved. | ||||||||||||
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