Asperger’s and AI

I’ve been wondering for a while if people with Asperger’s were uniquely suited to work on/with artificial intelligence.

I know myself, and most people with asperger’s are whizzes with computers. Computers make sense and people don’t. “That’s ridiculous”, you might say. Your a people, human, etc. But the key part in the word is people. That’s plural. It takes more than one individual. To myself I make 100% of sense 100% of the time. But to other people some stuff  I do seems stupid to them sometimes. Truthfully all of us are idiots sometimes. Sadly, some of us are all the time.

People do have rules. These rules change and adapt continuously but sometimes those rules aren’t communicated well.

But I know others are different then me. (strangely I used to think that others were exactly the same and lied about the differences.) But I began to think that others around me needed more. That people needed rituals or to help them adjust or accept different stages in life. That weddings, funerals and probably others was for others and not for myself. They needed these shared times to adjust. I don’t seem to.

Getting back to my main point. (none of this may ever get seen after I get done editing this.) People don’t make sense but computers do. Computers are very pure and pristine idiots. A computer only spits back what’s put in. A computer never makes a mistake. Either someone entered the wrong information, or their was a hardware problem. That’s a simplified answer. But that’s why Aspie’s love computers. They make sense. They always follow the rules.

But artificial programs don’t understand people very well because people don’t make sense. Language is a murky, fluid, thing that changes constantly. Instead of always saying ‘hello’ we say ‘what’s up’ (we’re not really interested in things above us.) or how’re you feeling. (This is a rhetorical question. It took me a long time to figure out people really didn’t want to know.)

Language is full of careless things that we say that don’t know what it means or care. (Find where the word threshold came from, graveyard shift, or dead-ringer. It might surprise you.)

Computers can’t make proper responses because they don’t understand how these words fit into our language. These are difficulties that aspie’s share. I think we make better computer-people translators. We think more like computers than people.

One reason I doubt computers will ever become self-aware, because we are barely aware of ourselves. Whatever you do can make is only a poor imitation of yourself. A painting isn’t a person. It’s only a piece of that person. A computer is just a piece of the human mind. An idea incarnate. A sophisticated calculator. We are so much more. More than we believe and more than we dare. Then how can we create something something comparable to that greatness we are afraid to strive for.

ADHD & Asperger’s

So I’ve been wondering if there is a connection with Asperger’s and ADHD. I have both, but it wasn’t always obvious.

The ADHD was very difficult to miss. I was always talking fast. Interrupting others people’s speaking and my own before we finished. (I’m not sure that came out clear?!) Very impulsive, spending money quickly, saying something before the jimmy the cricket in my head could filter it. Just being completely annoying and wearing other people out.

I went on med’s.

Things changed my thoughts narrowed down. I could keep on topic. I had alot more self-control and was less fidgety.

But other things started to happen too.

Sirens could frighten me. ( I know that sounds dumb, but with sensory issues. I think your sensory signals get misrouted somehow.)

Strong perfume, lotions, hairspray smelled like ammonia to me, they burned my nose!

I couldn’t handle crowds. I could not filter out the people around me from the person I was talking to. And all those voices (especially those high pitched voices, or those donkey braying laughs) were louder than my thoughts in my head.

Words don’t always come easy to me. I often pick the wrong ones and sometimes mix them up. I often catch myself  saying :do you know what I mean, or do you understand what I’m saying. I think in feelings and pictures. Words have to be dredged up. I feel like I have to paint with my words to communicate with others. I feel alot of the time that what I say resembles watercolors that have run together. You might see what I’m saying but also it could be a big sludge picture.

Sorry I got of track with explanations. See when I got on my meds for ADHD, the ADHD was minimized. But the Asperger’s that was always there was booted to the front. Things that bothered me a little before seemed incapacitating now.

So I began to wonder if the ADHD and Asperger’s balanced each other out. Like a seesaw, push one down, the other comes up.

And one step further, maybe the were two faces of the same disorder. One disorder causes you to think too little and act too much. And the other, too think too much and do little. I know I’m over simplifying things and I don’t really have a clue how these things work. (Aside from living every day with them.) But something gnaws at me that there is something there.

Well, there you go. Something to chew on if you like.

Sherlock Holmes Movie

So, I went to see the new Sherlock Holmes Movie. Here are the details via fandango: http://www.fandango.com/sherlockholmes_107400/movieoverview. I really liked it. It was exciting and the Sherlock Holmes character was great. But I felt sadly he wasn’t Sherlock Holmes. Not truly.

Sherlock Holmes is one of my favorite literary characters. He was brilliant. Observant.  And masterful at so many things. Disguises, Stick-Fighting, Fencing, Boxing, Chemistry, Biology and of course, crime solving. He had character flaws. No social graces to speak of.  He had no real interest in woman, except one Irene Adler. This was because she had out-foxed him.

But he had his character flaws and eccentricities.  He played the violin violently at all hours. He couldn’t sleep during a case. Depression.  Shooting his gun inside the house. Chemistry experiments in his room. Finally Drug use.

The character in the movie is similar. But , he is flashy and flamboyant. A bit of a jokester. Holmes was not like this. That I’m aware of he had no sense of humor. He only had the barest knowledge of most subject outside of  his area of expertise crime. In “A study of Scarlet”, Holmes is unaware that the earth revolves around the sun. Then he remarks to Watson that he will endeavor to forget the information. So as not to clutter his mind. (I’m paraphrasing alot.) All this seems to imply an Asperger Character. In the movie you don’t see a real Asperger person. I feel he’s close but he’s too clean cut and surreal. I’m stating an opinion. The Asperger spectrum in immense anything could happen. But I don’t feel this character is true to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s standards.

Oh, any thoughts about this Irene Adler? That’s another Subject. Let me know.

Here is an interesting article:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/magazine/06diagnosis-t.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper.

Marriage Life

Well, this last month we celebrated six years of marriage. I know this is difficult for many with Asperger’s. One statistic said about 90% of Asperger’s marriages fail. (Not sure of source.) I understand how this can be a problem. Good communication is one of the key components of a successful marriage. My wife and I work on it continually. What she says and I hear aren’t often the same thing. But this goes both ways. Sometimes I forget to finish a thought, or I don’t ask for clarification or further detail to be sure I got the full picture.

I think that an Asperger Marriage can be successful. We dated for about 3 years because I had to learn how to communicate. Listening was and is — still a problem. I thought that listening to small talk was foolishness. I wanted to give quick solutions, ask questions or share information. But most people have more needs than this. But we persevered and I learned better. I know that as an Aspie. I can bring in different ideas into the relationship than most couples. I have a simpler faith and honesty than many people. I expect better from people and see more of the little pleasures. I’m quick to laugh and talk thru problems, because I can’t just ignore them like most. These things and more I think my wife loves and me. Others may find things important in a mate too. But it takes alot of work, self-sacrifice and pain to make the relationship work. But I think that’s true of all marriages.

Let me now if your in an Aspie marriage and how you work things out.

Header Details

Header

I took forever to make this header. One of the problems I struggle with is making projects too complicated. I don’t know if this is an Aspie moment, or not. It took me about three days to make. I wanted it to have the asperger’s/autism awareness ribbon theme. I wanted a lion running. I don’t really know why, I’m not really partial to lions. I just thought it would look cool. I had to find a lion, african savanna, and puzzle pattern then put it together. Why all this extra information you don’t probably need or want? Because even though I got stuck on a detail, that most people don’t even think about, it still came out well. Life is like that. Aspie’s are people with gifts. It may take them a little longer or not. But there is something special and unique that they add to the world.

Oh, if my spelling or grammer is bad I flunked English all through school, it’s my thing.