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Comment by dpiers | Hacker News Reader

I understand where you are coming from, but this is a bit like saying "the primary symptom of dyslexia is the belief others are better at reading".

MRI studies have shown fundamental differences in the mental wiring in autistic brains. Lack of social perception/awareness is a widely recognized trait in people with autism spectrum disorders.

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how do you know it isn't a result of the belief that I am bad at reading that makes me worse and worse at it, and rewires my brain to reflect this perceived environment?

Because science; believe it or not, scientists aren't that stupid, they've thought of all of that and tested for it to ensure their conclusions are correct. Your two seconds of thought on the subject don't come close to how much thinking has been put into the issue by thousands of people over many decades of effort to understand these things.

All within certain cultural modes, all to confirm certain paths they are already headed down. The collapse of the ability to communicate across cultures doesn't bother you? Doesn't make you question whether or not this approach that we've all been patting ourselves on the back for while so many are lost to its blind spots may actually not be the right solution, no matter how deep our investment in it goes?

The arrogance of assuming that you are correct because what you argue has references that you appreciate is much greater than me trying to develop an idea that permits a new approach to an old problem.

Seems to me you simply fail to grasp the nature of science. You think science doesn't question it's assumptions and biases, you don't understand science. Science is a process for validating the validity of ideas, any ideas from any culture, the process has no cultural bias and no blind spots. You aren't developing an idea that permits a new approach, you're simply assuming simple questions haven't been looked at because you lack any depth of understanding about what's already been studied and don't realize your questions are simplistic and unoriginal. They assume wrongly that scientists are ignorant and didn't think to check something as simple as basic correlation vs causatiion.

I do understand science. What I do not understand is using it to make claims far beyond its abilities and then retreating into its self-certainty when challenged.

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