Something I can’t really wrap my head around the last couple of days is the gravity of what it means if “autism” related genes are experiencing a selective sweep right now. If you’re familiar with the current astronomical definition of a planet, a selective sweep is similar to the “clears it’s own orbit” requirement.
Basically, when “autism” genes meet “not autism” variants, the “not autism” genes get reduced from the “gene pool”. This means that despite decades of trying to fight, treat, or cure the future, these traits are going to continue advancing. And based on all available evidence, they are.
When one reduces this social mechanic into a metabolic one, we can already see the boundary conditions of a separate reaction forming. We can see the strengthening of the new reaction conditions to the point where the only options left will be to expel it or be subsumed by it.
This is how speciation works, not on a gradualist basis, but a steady build up of “trait” competition until this expel/subsume point is reached and a new species springs forward or the species itself changes.
The “distress” of being *different* is ultimately the “fuel” that will provide enough metabolic “heat” to survive outside of the previous species confine, like a bird incubating an egg until it has sufficient enough development to survive on it’s own (the egg came first, but it was a product of the proto-chicken). Without enough “distress”, without enough metabolic “friction”, the new species dies off in short order. And this cycle repeats over and over across the metabolic landscape of life.
We are witnessing a holy grail of biology, and we are completely oblivious to the subject… us.
Edit: Lauryn Hill – Everything Is Everything
Edit 2: Put another way, the world is not experiencing a “mental health crisis”, it’s experiencing the heat of change.