Oh shoot! I just realized this might be offense. Sorry but also I don't care. In this thought-provoking discussion, Malcolm and Simone examine the concept of autism and its prevalence among society's elite class, drawing fascinating parallels with historical court culture and contemporary tech CEOs. They delve into how certain aspects of autism, such as a desire for intense schedules and a dislike for touch, resonate with medieval court cultures and are reflected in the behaviors of some of the world's wealthiest individuals. Simone shares her personal experiences living with autism and how this has shaped her understanding of societal norms. The conversation takes an intriguing turn as they contemplate whether the prevalence of autism among the tech elite influences their ability to relate to the general population. If you're interested in understanding the intersection of autism, power dynamics, and societal change, this video is a must-watch.TranscriptMAlcolm: [00:00:00] When I first met her for a long time, she really hates touching people. Just hates it. And so early on, she would even wear gloves when we go in public, so she didn't have to actually touch anyone's hands.MAlcolm: It's the same as doors. She will sit and wait at a door for like eight minutes for me to open it for her because she. Hates touching door handles, knowing that a lot of other people have touched these door handles. She really likes like a intense schedules. She likes you know, ceremony in her daily life, like doing very structured things and I'm like, what does this sound like?MAlcolm: This sounds a lot like court culture in, medieval Europe. You know, having to wear gloves before you touch people standing at doors. There's even accounts of nobles like standing at a door for 30 minutes because there wasn't the servant who was supposed to be there to open the door for them.MAlcolm: And then the intense. , ceremonies and very specific things you had to do throughout the day and the ways you had to interact with people. Even the not looking them in the eyes thing. So much of it sounds like they've tried to create this little autistic paradise for themselves, or at least [00:01:00] similar to how autism is manifest in my wife, it's a little suspiciousMalcolm (2): Simone, I have heard this conspiracy theory that lizard people, I. Control our society. Now, when they say this, what they mean is there's a group of people who are like humans, you know, humanoid, but a little different, maybe less emotional than other humans sort of, uh, secretly controlling our society and.Malcolm (2): The funny thing is, is we actually had a chapter we removed from our book on this subject saying that it might be true um, but not in the way that the conspiracy theorist made. Hmm.Simone: There was an organization that, that I worked with for a while that I really like that would gather very high caliber people.Simone: Like the, their criteria for membership was you have to be the best in your field. In order to qualify as a member. So this is bringing [00:02:00] together the top tech CEOs diplomats, politicians writers, journalists, activists artists, et cetera to have off the record conversations. And the funny thing about it is that it was very much.Simone: A series of retreats really designed for autistic people where, you know, you're sitting, you know, every moment of the day is scheduled. When you sit down for a conversation with people, the subject is chosen, the people are handpicked for each other, and there's one moderator that is making sure the conversation, you know, stays on track and that everyone speaks and contributes.Simone: It's like super, super structured. There's no stress about, okay, where do I need to be? Which topic should I attend? Like, no, that's all decided for you. It's like, I love it personally because I'm autistic and I love like the structure and the guidelines and the rules and the procedures and oh my gosh, it's dreamy.Simone: So the, but I think it's telling, being is what's telling about it already. GetMAlcolm: disproportionately the elite cast in our society is on the spectrum already.Simone: Yeah. [00:03:00] Even if they don't admit it, that like that this kind of format would appeal disproportionately to. The top performers in the respective fields?MAlcolm: Well, it's not an admit or not admit thing. We can just look, I can look at the richest people in the world. I can look at Mark Zuckerberg on a stage trying to give a speech and I'm like, oh, that guy is obviously on the spectrum. Elon Musk has admitted to being diagnosed with Asperger's, which now doesn't exist as a diagnosis and is just autistic.MAlcolm: Just. In case people aren't familiar, the reason why the diagnosis of Asperger's doesn't exist anymore is because it used to be autistic, but high IQ and successful. And it's like, that's super unfair. Like imagine if there was like dyslexic and then dyslexic, but successful. Well, man, everybody who is labeled dyslexic, that's labeling you as also unsuccessful.MAlcolm: So everyone's gonna assume that you're like barely functional if you're dyslexic. So it is really unfair that you would ever carve off. The successful people from a diagnosis. So, or high IQ at least, you know? And that's what you were seeing was that. So [00:04:00] historically Simone would've been diagnosed as Asperger's, but today she'd be diagnosed as autistic.MAlcolm: But anyway, and I think this is where we got that negative stigma for autistic with the older generation. But you know, you can look at so many of these high profile, you know, super wealthy billionaires talk, and you're just like, oh gosh. Like if you've been around a lot of people on the spectrum, you're like, these people are obviously on the spectrum.MAlcolm: ButMAlcolm: what I find most. Fascinating about this theory is that this may not be a new phenomenon.MAlcolm: It may have been around for a very long time. So let's look at some of the ways that Simone is weird in her autism. When I first met her for a long time, she really hates touching people. Just hates it. And so early on, she would even wear gloves when we go in public, so she didn't have to actually touch anyone's hands.MAlcolm: It's the same as doors. She will sit and wait at a door for like eight minutes for me to open it for her because she. Hates touching door handles, knowing that a lot of other people have touched these door handles. She really likes like a intense schedules. She likes you know, ceremony in her daily life, like doing very structured [00:05:00] things and I'm like, what does this sound like?MAlcolm: This sounds a lot like court culture in, medieval Europe. You know, having to wear gloves before you touch people standing at doors. There's even accounts of nobles like standing at a door for 30 minutes because there wasn't the servant who was supposed to be there to open the door for them.MAlcolm: And then the intense. , ceremonies and very specific things you had to do throughout the day and the ways you had to interact with people. Even the not looking them in the eyes thing. So much of it sounds like they've tried to create this little autistic paradise for themselves, or at least similar to how autism is manifest in my wife, it's a little suspicious What if society, but, okay, so here's where this whole theory gets a lot more interesting.MAlcolm: Which is, does that mean that if it is true that people who are running these major tech companies are more likely to be autistic, do you think that means that they can't relate to the general population as much and they're trying to push things that maybe the [00:06:00] general population wouldn't like?MAlcolm: Like is there genuine merit to this lizard person accusation where if these people are different does that mean they can't understand people?Simone: So I've heard this critique from people also who have worked in very senior roles in Silicon Valley, for example, like, I've h… This is a public episode. 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