The Myth of Autism and Chess

For the highlighted part, no, like I said I'm not saying he was schizophrenic (or some other mental illness). Just that there's more going on than a normal guy who worked hard at chess.

And no, not every fringe group and fringe idea is crazy. But the one out of one million that are right don't make the 1/1,000,000 odds any better -- and in any case, without any any tilting towards some social or political ideology, his ideas can be logically judged on their own merit... and they were illogical, so there's that too.

Cooperation is evolutionarily beneficial. Just look at something like ants or bees, slaving away for the queen. Self sacrifice to keep their species going.

Lots of animals are social and cooperate, monkeys, wolves, dolphins come to mind.

As for humans, we weren't always so nice either. Infanticide of the malformed or undesirable (e.g. female infanticide in India) is common in history, and still practiced in some places today. On one hand it is very cruel, on the other hand sometimes communities weren't able to support these individuals.

Of course nature is not immoral, but amoral. My point is a total laissez faire leads to too much suffering.

I agree.

Glasgow Celtic 4 Huns 1

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What else could be going on if you didn't imply there was a mental illness and compare someone who is good at chess with hitler?   

i think you need to revisit logic class. thats like saying the olympics and people with disabilities go hand in hand. 

...it's fun to jump on people's buttons, especially in Politically Correct America.

Here is the truth.  For example, we supposedly have a water shortage in Southern California and mandatory conservation is required.  First of all, water is a renewable resource and the hydrologic cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, percolation, etc.) is endless.  We are using the same water we used since the dawn of civilization.  The real problem, in SoCal and the world, is too many people Over-population is the cause of starvation, pollution, war, and civil unrest.  Santa Barbara was smart enough to take the option of exclusion from the State Water Project and limit their growth.  Los Angeles has some smart people but as a group, they are stupid.  In LA, push everything to the extreme maximum of over-crowding like a colony of rats.  It's a rat-race all right; and the rats are winning. And Western Civilization has sacred cows in the form of offering financial incentives to people for creating more and more people who demand taxpayers take care of them.  I await the day when I see a guy with a sign that says, "Third Generation Homeless." 

My children were all gifted intellectually and academically in part because I provided a nurturing and enriched enviroment while raising them.  But I wondered sometime, as they saw school funds for music programs and advance placement classes reduced, if the didn't sometimes wish they had some trendy disability (cancer, obesity, dyslexia, autism, Special, webbed-feet, etc.) because that is the focus of the liberal agenda.  I picked up a purple heart in Vietnam and am reminded daily of the unfair and inconsiderate handicapped are treated.   Of course disabled people should be treated humanity, but not moved to the front of the line.  In my State, we have over six hundred criminals convicted of such heinous crimes it makes you sick and they stay comfortably in prison for twenty years.  If I had my way, there would not be a "death-row." There would be a "death cell" and individuals who kill police, rape and murder women and children, kill late term abortions with sicissors, and bomb innocent civilians would be in that cell for about 24 hours.  Way too many people have their values and priorities so confused the long-term and future consequences of their ideas and assumptions are pure poison.

So the real reason I started this topic was to provide a conduit to vent my frustration and express my over-all misanthropy.  Call it a rant if you wish, at least it is a non-violent method to express my distain for drivers who wait in the crosswalk when making a left turn instead of pulling into the intersection. I don’t know if autistic people play chess but I think some do.  I pay attention particularly to opponents who pound the clock or throw the board and pieces against the wall when they are checkmated in the middle game.

Your topic is best expressed on Open Discussion. This is not the place.

On Open Discussion you will have people who agree and disagree with you and some who will be glad to debate you. 

Time to adjust the antenna on your tin-foil hat...

tin has not been used for decades, aluminum foil is probably best. :D

Thanks for playing!

"My children were all gifted intellectually and academically in part because I provided a nurturing and enriched environment while raising them".

Hi Squarely, I do not think you should take the credit if your kids were all gifted. It is MHO that you are a lucky man. However if they worked hard at school and were adequately fed and clothed and then went on to achieve success in life you can certainly take some credit for that.

As for the rest of your opinions I am happy to leave a clearly discerning intelligent (for the most part) chess playing group to try to glean the very thinly spread seed from the well overabundant abundant chaff.

One comment you made however does irk a little. You said. "like putting old wine in new bottles" which is a meaningless inversion of a biblical text which actually makes sense in it's original form.

"And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

If however you were not trying to take credit for your children being naturally gifted and only for your fiscal contributions AND if you deliberately inverted the biblical text, then I will have to re-read ALL your posts more carefully ().

Well...at least I learned somethings...and that is my reason for starting such a controversial forum topic.  I may bait and tease, but I am the first to confess my ignorance about autism.  I have spoken with other peers about this topic and they look at me like I am crazy because for them it is a foregone conclusion that this is some new, previously unknown (for 5,000 years) malady.  Teach me, please.  What is the etiology of autism and what is the cure?

Surely google is the place to look?

I have autism.

It hasn't stopped me from getting better at chess!

God bless you, logozar...I have my own psych problems and I am a psychologist.

However, you have obviously managed your tendency and with practice, you will be extradonary!

There is little doubt in my mind that Fischer was autistic but that did not prevent him from being one of the greatest players of all time.

Peace Out.

I find it amazing that the people who were providing cruddy arguments about things they didn't know anything about three years ago are still providing cruddy arguments about things they still don't know anything about today.

@BaseSix- Slow learners?