Autists Are Just Cutting Edge, G

Academics and people who are supposed to be doing the heavy thinking for the rest of us are sounding the alarm about the shortened attention spans of modern humans.

Politely, look around and smell the wind of change, because you're about to be left behind by those of us living it.

Like I'd tell my Dad when he lit candles for the souls of my children because I homeschooled them:

If you spent half the time with them as you do worrying about them, you'd see you have nothing to fear.

I was diagnosed with ADHD 3-4 years ago, a gift from a toxic brain injury brought about by a pharmaceutical.

In the quest to understand myself more, I began consuming research and discovered another gift, this one I'd always had: autism. Whew, lass. That explains everything.

As I was processing this new, profound understanding of why things were with me the way they were, the headlines were stacking up around me.

Why Your Attention Span Is Now Shorter Than A Goldfish's

We May Be Losing Our Attention Span...

Blah Blah Blah Fear Fear Fear Catastrophize - Here's The Solution We're Selling

So, being one of those new Frontier Model Goldfish, I tried to see the catastrophe in my own life.

I am, arguably, extremely short of attention span. I have a game on my phone I play so I can listen when people are talking to me because if I don't wrestle my attention into that box it wanders off and I come back with:

What? Sorry, I wasn't listening, I got stuck in my head.

(But also, have you seen the cool baubles I collected in there?!)

Not particularly endearing, and perhaps proving the point of the smart people, but then I step back and look at the results of a brain processing thirteen different tangents simultaneously.

We're in an age where information is flowing faster than the average person can process it.

I love Rob, my coparent and friend for life, but he likes to savor his information and think through his response thoroughly before it comes out of his mouth - exactly the opposite of me, already three conversations ahead before I realize oops, should've filtered that one better.

It's a lot like Judy the rabbit and Flash the sloth in Zootopia, and I try to examine this difference in processing through the lens of "ZOMG the sky is falling people don't stay on the same topic long enough anymore," but what I come up with is: maybe we're not supposed to.

There are those who say humans are reaching the end of their evolutionary journey. That may be true, but the neurodivergents seem to be telling a different tale.

We are heading into the mind more, and the mind needs an upgrade.

I find it interesting that the direction seems almost certainly to be heading toward a more telepathic, shorthand form of communication simply because the vessel cannot contain the depth and breadth of the information flowing through it now.

Communication in its current format is the bottleneck. Our words are what hold us back. Emojis are popular because they convey in fewer characters the sense of a thing.

As we draw inward to Mind, in these first stages of a new evolution of the species, now relatively extraneous functions such touch, sight, hearing have all created in us a sensitivity, a pulling away from the much of the world.

Neurodivergents tend to be more sensitive to audio processing, visual inputs, physical sensation. We're doing it in such numbers that even places like Walmart have created "sensory hours," where the external stimulation is dialed down below what is comfortable for "normal people."

The embodiment folks will tell you this sensitivity that might make us flee the body more is a detriment, but from the inside, I've gotta say that it doesn't feel detrimental. It feels like exactly what I perceive it as: all hands on deck to process the flow of information efficiently and correctly.

I still live in and deeply enjoy my body (except when I don't, chronic pain is a real thing and yet not the only thing), but I don't enjoy the sensory experience of outside forces upon it.

If you interact with a neurodivergent population, you'll generally find that their intellectual processing has increased commensurate to the external physicality's retreat.

The modern problem: humans need to process information at faster and faster rates.

The modern solution: automation, technology and general advancements have enabled us to expand the mind.

The future is going to arrive in fits and bursts, and it is going to be ushered in through the flow of information.

Neurodivergents are just beginning to bridge the past with the future, the physical with the mental, and the path forward is going to be fascinating to witness.