You can safely assume that many scientists are borderline AutisticHow safe is that assumption? I've never met a scientist who I would call remotely autisitic. Progress in science depends on absorbing ideas from others, communicating your own findings, engaging in discussion and review, and lots of teamwork. Don't confuse the ability to focus and analyse, and the possession of a healthy contempt for consensus and imprecision, with autism.
How safe is that assumption?It's safe in that it does no harm to assume. It's helpful to choose a username that is helpful.
I can see no reason to adopt a pseudonymThe single biggest reason is to achieve some minimal security. Using a genuine name and being too precise about where you live is clearly dangerous in an online setting. You're a moderator, you can't recommend people use their genuine names.
Consider the abbreviationsThat they do, which is why I pick a name short enough that it's not likely to happen. Besides, I often need to refer to myself in the 3rd person, and a long name just means a lot of typing.
People often tend to shorten names online, which I leant by experience.
However, your name is what you start with and why make people start with an impression that is miles away from where you are?My name here is just a shortened word and not meant to leave an impression. I could have used 'Noax', which isn't meaningful on first impression, but that name does mean something, even if it isn't quite 'wearing your heart on your sleeve'.
a long name just means a lot of typing.Presumably you do know that if you start with an @ symbol and just type something like @ET a drop-down list replaces it with @Eternal Student in no time at all? There's a risk it also notifies the person but almost everyone has turned that feature off.
I've never met a scientist who I would call remotely autistic.Until around the 1980s (perhaps, until the release of Rainman, in 1988), autism was commonly seen as a development problem of infants, who were often locked up in institutions. Since virtually all scientists are adults, they could not be autistic, by definition.
You spend your whole life trying to find something you enjoy, and then everyone tells you to shut up about it.
I had assumed it was HAL from the space odyssey books, but version c - so not trying to kill everyone.So much for not trying to leave an impression. It's short for Halcyon.
NOAX would have been hard to work out. No-one would have known it was Non-Oxide Adhesive eXperimental, or a pop singer. Best guess - "No Axe to grind".Last one was closer.
Since virtually all scientists are adults, they could not be autistic, by definition.It's a moving definition. They weren't diagnosed as being on the spectrum but they might be now. There's also no obligation for someone to be diagnosed, or any reason it would be useful to be so diagnosed.
Cavendish, who was brilliant, but could never talk directly to people, but used correspondence.Sensible fellow. Written correspondence cannot be misquoted, wrongly attributed, or simply plagiarised. Couldn't, or wouldn't? I never speak to government inspectors, and insist that all transactions are in writing. The crooked ones do not like it.
Darwin, with his intense childhood focus on collecting bugs
In Darwin's second year at the university, he joined the Plinian Society, a student natural-history group featuring lively debates in which radical democratic students with materialistic views challenged orthodox religious concepts of science.Followed by years of collaboration and friendship with every major intellect of his era, and being invited to participate in years of exploration with the most accomplished seamen and navigators.....doesn't sound very autisitic to me.I doubnt that anyone with a hint of autism would cultivate the amount of publicity and controversy that Darwin (and indeed all major contributors to human understanding) endured. If anything, he comes across as a very sociable person.
- more severe cases often being seen as children of parents with mildly autistic tendencies (ie a strong genetic contribution) - with Silicon Valley being a particularly intense hotspot
People with mild autism often have sharp intellects but are socially awkward. Severe autism is debilitating condition and usually requires institutional care. Personally I am against the medicalization of human traits where every variation becomes a "syndrome". On the original topic, I couldn't think of a suitable pseudonym and I used my real name. At my age I couldn't give a f#@* who sees it.I thought computer people have aspergers syndrome, rather than autistic, which has no slant on someone's interlect other than slowing development.