] One provocative hypothesis that might account for the
] rise of spectrum disorders in technically adept
] communities like Silicon Valley, some geneticists
] speculate, is an increase in assortative mating.
] Superficially, assortative mating is the blond gentleman
] who prefers blondes; the hyperverbal intellectual who
] meets her soul mate in the therapist's waiting room.
] There are additional pressures and incentives for
] autistic people to find companionship - if they wish to
] do so - with someone who is also on the spectrum. Grandin
] writes, "Marriages work out best when two people with
] autism marry or when a person marries a handicapped or
] eccentric spouse.... They are attracted because their
] intellects work on a similar wavelength."
]
]
] That's not to say that geeks, even autistic ones, are
] attracted only to other geeks. Compensatory unions of
] opposites also thrive along the continuum, and in the
] last 10 years, geekitude has become sexy and associated
] with financial success. The lone-wolf programmer may be
] the research director of a major company, managing the
] back end of an IT empire at a comfortable remove from the
] actual clients. Says Bryna Siegel, author of The World of
] the Autistic Child and director of the PDD clinic at
] UCSF, "In another historical time, these men would have
] become monks, developing new ink for early printing
] presses. Suddenly they're making $150,000 a year with
] stock options. They're reproducing at a much higher
] rate."
]
]
] Genetic hypotheses like these don't rule out
] environmental factors playing a role in the rising
] numbers. Autism is almost certainly not caused by the
] action of a single gene, but by some orchestration of
] multiple genes that may make the developing child more
] susceptible to a trigger in the environment. One
] consequence of increased reproduction among people
] carrying some of these genes might be to boost "genetic
] loading" in successive generations - leaving them more
] vulnerable to threats posed by toxins in vaccines,
] candida, or any number of agents lurking in the
] industrialized world.

Really interesting. Really interesting. Really interesting. Really interesting. Really...

Wired 9.12: The Geek Syndrome