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Comment by bheadmaster | Hacker News Reader

There have been hypotheses that a significant number of trans women (i.e. biological men who identify as women) are actually on the autism spectrum. Considering natural tendency of autistic people to prefer isolated activities and puzzles, there may be a correlation between hackers and trans women.

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> There have been hypotheses

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27872002/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26753812/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38803560/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38831234/

As with any novel phenomena, especially in sociology, it is very hard to provide tangible evidence for anything. If you demand nobody speaks of anything of sort without hard evidence, rarely anything would ever be said.

> If you demand nobody speaks of anything of sort without hard evidence, rarely anything would ever be said.

Eh, that is some bullshit, but there is evidence though. I edited my comment to provide it, instead of asking you to do so.

> I edited my comment to provide it, instead of asking you to do so.

Nice of you to do that. Thank you.

it is very hard not to observe said tendency, though really I was hoping that it was just that programmers always been rich enough to undergo transition. is this still true, though, perhaps now you can be jobless and still somehow apply for transition? depending on GPS coordinates, of course, but possible here and there.

this mentioning of potential trans-paraphernalia in an article calling to all hackers is a little misleading (imho), biased perhaps, or even influential. it is a statement i guess.

back in our teen hacker days we heard stories of ppl building molotovs, credit card scammers, eavesdropping equipment, lock-pick etc. but biohacking and female hormonal medicine in particular has definitely not been on the list (that much) if memory serves right... and my bet is that Phrack back-archive can confirm it.

perhaps it is a logical to see a change in popular understanding what hackers can find, or do, or are defined by. curiosity and daring courage to intrude is one thing, we can all agree.

perhaps also we may agree that hacking one's body is still hacking, as social engineering IS considered hacking.

Might also depend on how you define "hacker". Most people don't know the true meaning of the word, and should be using "cracker" instead.

Even if this is true, it need not be either-or. Saying that they are 'actually' autistic seems to imply that you do not believe that they are 'actually' trans.

It doesn’t seem that way with a charitable reading.

For what it's worth, I didn't mean "actually" in an either-or sense, but more in an unexpected-correlation sense. I tend to avoid ontological discussions on this topic.

English is not my native language, I sometimes miss the subtleties.

My bad, I'm sorry

What’s with this ‘biological men’ stuff? How would you define that and what about chromosomal abnormalities like XXY or XYY people? If I have Jacob’s syndrome and a penis am I biologically male or something else entirely? Explain.

If you just want to have silly ideas about trans people, that’s fine because I’m done arguing with people over that. It’s a huge waste of time to get that interested in another person’s genitals but you do you. However if you’re going to use something as silly as ‘biological male’ you have to support that.

> If I have Jacob’s syndrome and a penis am I biologically male

Yes, of course. It's a condition that only affects males.

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