Truly Free Markets, Rethinking Autism, Dreams

[wolven7]

This month's Wired has two really Really important articles:

'Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business'

and 'Yeah, I'm Autistic. You got a problem with that?' (PDF found Here)

The former article discusses the internet's tendency to drive all service prices toward $0, and the implications this has for economic models, competition, and development. It's very important if you plan to do business at any point within the next 12 years. Getting acclimated to that, now, will be of great use.

The second article... Well. Here:

'...the words "A Translation" appear on a black screenscreen, and for the next five minutes, 27-year-old Amanda Baggs—who is autistic and doesn’t speak—describes in vivid and articulate terms what’s going on inside her head as she carries out these seemingly bizarre actions. In a synthesized voice generated by a software application, she explains that touching, tasting, and smelling allow her to have a “constant conversation” with her surroundings. These forms of nonverbal stimuli constitute her “native language,” Baggs explains, and are no better or worse than spoken language. Yet her failure to speak is seen as a deficit, she says, while other people’s failure to learn her language is seen as natural and acceptable.

'And you find yourself thinking: She might have a point.'

I don't think I really need to explain why this is important. Read the articles. Pass them along.

Last night I dreamed that I was at a sweet tea tasting cook-off, way out in north-east or -west Georgia, same kind of area as the RenFaire. Sitting in the motel room with everyone on the balcony/back porch, while I try to decapitate three dead mafia goons/bosses. They were sent to intimdate us. The cutting of the nexks and throats took longer than I expected, with more work. humglum sat watching, disapprovingly, not saying anything, though looking as if she were disappointed in me for letting it get to this place. Next section was transporting the heads, trying to get them disposed of, with minimal physical evidence left behind. The heads and the metal music stand I was using to hold them upright started taunting me.

After that, something about getting ready to leave, with everyone, but my staying behind, on the pretense of playing golf with Barack Obama. But really looing to dispose of the heads. Played golf with Barack, with a potato, which got stuck in one of the pipes. Because it wasn't just golf. It was also Putt-Putt minigolf.

Why a Potato, you ask? Well, between watching The Run Down, the episode of No Reservations in Ireland, and my delicious French Fries, at the Vortex, last night (third place, by the way), i think the reason becomes clear.

*sigh*

Good morning.

[Edit 12.16: Crap. William F. Buckley died.]

Comments

[renatus.livejournal.com]

The Autism article is one of the best things I've seen in quite a while. I read it this morning when it came up on BoingBoing and damn. That's amazingly important research and I think it'll have impacts on how 'normal' brain function is looked at as well, not just those who are along the autism spectrum.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

I certainly hope that it will...

[nausved.livejournal.com]

Your second link is very fascinating.

My close friend Cody (codeman38) is mildly autistic himself. He is studying computer science, with a particular interest in linguistics (e.g., translation software and the like). He's been considering doing his thesis on something related to autism, such as analyzing the language patterns of "low functioning" autists. He suggests that a lot of tests used to compare autistic children and "normal" children—such as the famous "Theory of Mind" test—don't take language differences into account, which may give researchers the wrong idea about the autistic mind and ultimately result in discrimination.

I'd eager to see what he finds (assuming he takes on this project).

[wolven.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see that line of research followed, myself.

[unknownbinaries.livejournal.com]

I kind of don't understand how it took this long to get here with the autism thing. Why someone has to whip out a world they made, or keep up with doctorates on a high school education before people are like 'huh! maybe they're real people after all!'

I also suspect that, had I grown up just a little later, or had a mother that was a little more paranoid about my social status, I could have ended up with an Asperger's diagnosis.

...dia-gnosis...that *just* occurred to me.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know why it takes so much for people to investigate things like this. Every time something like this happens, I hope it'll change the way we think, not just about the issue at hand, but also about how we approach the study of What we choose to study. Unfortunately, it generally doesn't work out that way...

And yeah, I think that's been tickling at the back of my mind, but I never really Noticed it, until now. Weird.