Marco

“Aware adults with autism and their parents are often angry about autism. They may ask why nature or God created such horrible conditions as autism, manic depression, and schizophrenia. However, if the genes that caused these conditions were eliminated there might be a terrible price to pay. It is possible that persons with bits of these traits are more creative, or possibly even geniuses. If science eliminated these genes, maybe the whole world would be taken over by accountants.”
― Steve Silberman, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

“In my view, as soon as you’ve told something to someone, you’ve taken the potential for a deeper meaning away from them. True knowledge is when information becomes embodied understanding: We have to act in the world to understand it.”
― Beau Lotto, Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently

“The text-based nature of online interaction eventually provided the foundation for something that Leo Kanner couldn’t have imagined: the birth of the autistic community. But two things had to happen first. Kanner’s notion that autism was a rare form of childhood psychosis would have to be permanently laid to rest. Then, as Asperger’s lost tribe finally emerged from the shadows, autistic people would have to overturn the notion that they were the victims of a global epidemic.”
― Steve Silberman, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

“cult followings based on sports teams or rock stars, science fiction fandom was rooted in an essentially solitary activity: reading. Traits typically viewed as pathological or pathetic in the mainstream (like obsessing over trivia while accumulating vast hoards of treasured ephemera) were rewarded in the community as signs of “trufan” commitment. Fandom offered what every homesick space child yearned for: membership in an elite society of loners united by their belief in the future. For those who had felt like exiles their whole lives, forced to live among strangers, becoming a fan was like finally coming home.”
― Steve Silberman, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity