AUTISM = "no drive to explore"

Mr. Catlover aka Terry Austin surely is a bit scatterbrained, but at
least he is not a well known perpetrator of hoaxes, like yourself, Mr
Simberg.

Karl M. Syring

In article ,
h (Rand Simberg) wrote:

On 6 Jun 2005 07:51:15 -0700, in a place far, far away,
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a way as
to indicate that:

Mr. Catlover aka Terry Austin surely is a bit scatterbrained, but at
least he is not a well known perpetrator of hoaxes, like yourself, Mr
Simberg.

??

Do you have a credible cite for that slander?

Isn't it libel? (and which charge are you referring to? you being a
hoaxer or Terry Austin being "catlover"?)

--
Robert Woodward
http://www.drizzle.com/~robertaw

On 6 Jun 2005 07:51:15 -0700, in a place far, far away,
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a way as
to indicate that:

Mr. Catlover aka Terry Austin surely is a bit scatterbrained, but at
least he is not a well known perpetrator of hoaxes, like yourself, Mr
Simberg.

??

Do you have a credible cite for that slander?

On Mon, 06 Jun 2005 08:51:10 -0700, in a place far, far away, "Robert
A. Woodward" made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Mr. Catlover aka Terry Austin surely is a bit scatterbrained, but at
least he is not a well known perpetrator of hoaxes, like yourself, Mr
Simberg.

??

Do you have a credible cite for that slander?

Isn't it libel? (and which charge are you referring to?

That's unclear, when it occurs on Usenet. I don't think there have
been any rulings on it.

you being a
hoaxer or Terry Austin being "catlover"?)

The former. I've no knowledge of, or interest in, Terry Austin's
feelings about cats. Or anything else, for that matter.

On 5 Jun 2005, whispered secretively:
Either way, I suspect that a person suffering from autism or Asperger's
would have other offline obsessions, and that were they to become
obsessed with internet newsgroups, they would quickly suffer a
breakdown.

Didn't everyone go through a stage of total Usenet-focus for a year or
so back when they first encountered it?

Eventually, one recovers.

That's not to say that compulsive newsgroup antagonists
don't suffer mental ill health, just that it's more likely to be
something other than either of these conditions. Loneliness and a lack
of career fulfillment must play a part in this.

Well, speaking as an Asperger's sufferer, I'm not lonely as long as I've
got an active net connection. Living alone is a *blessing*: there are no
people physically around to pose constant (horrible stressful) social
demands. The people on the other end of the net link are quite enough.

So while some may be lonely, it's not a requirement (indeed, we may
be more lonely-proof than the common man).

--
`It's as bizarre an intrusion as, I don't know, the hobbits coming home
to find that the Shire has been taken over by gangsta rappers.'

The hoax thing is easy:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/split.asp

Karl M. Syring

On 7 Jun 2005 07:37:31 -0700, in a place far, far away,
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a way as
to indicate that:

The hoax thing is easy:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/split.asp

That site doesn't support your claim--it negates it. It says that it
wasn't a hoax--it was satire. Can't you read the URL?

Moron.

I almost hate to get involved in this thread, but I feel I must. I am
also a father to an autistic child.

She does nothing BUT explore. She is in every room, drawer, closet,
purse, shelf, container, shed, neighbor's house, car, etc etc etc.
Non-stop from when she wakes up until she is asleep, she is either
watching her favorite videos/shows or crawling under, over, into,
through, around; climbing up, down, etc.

So saying that all autistics do not want to explore is a generalization
that is not true.

Jim

Jim wrote:
I almost hate to get involved in this thread, but I feel I must. I am
also a father to an autistic child.

She does nothing BUT explore.

Tell that to the moron Brenda Clough, who claims that humans explore
only for God, Gold, or Glory - never to satisfy curiosity and/or seek
adventure.

She is in every room, drawer, closet,
purse, shelf, container, shed, neighbor's house, car, etc etc etc.
Non-stop from when she wakes up until she is asleep, she is either
watching her favorite videos/shows or crawling under, over, into,
through, around; climbing up, down, etc.

That description would apply to just about every child I've observed.

So saying that all autistics do not want to explore is a generalization
that is not true.

But *no one* made that claim. What experts point out is that many
*severe* autistics manifestly lack a drive to explore. The point: it's
*not* normal to lack that drive.

L. Merk wrote:

So saying that all autistics do not want to explore is a generalization
that is not true.


But *no one* made that claim. What experts point out is that many
*severe* autistics manifestly lack a drive to explore. The point: it's
*not* normal to lack that drive.


You see, 'L.', what you're doing in this thread is pulling
a fast one with definitions. You use different ones depending
on what you're trying to show.

If you want to show that (just about everyone) has a drive
to 'explore', you use a very broad definition.

But then when you want to argue that space exploration
is necessary, or that people who don't feel driven to visit
Mars are autistic, you use a very narrow definition. Otherwise,
why don't all those innumerable opportunities for exploration
(sic) in everyday life, the ones used to show we're all
explorers (sic), serve to satisfy that putative drive?

Paul