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It could be a usefull specialisation for a medieval society needing automatization. Not every specialisations usefullness is instantly obvious under the very a
by louithethrid 9y ago
It could be a usefull specialisation for a medieval society needing automatization.
Not every specialisations usefullness is instantly obvious under the very artifical circumstances of a heavy industrialized society.
Beeing a warlord was usefull for many centurys, but today it only gets you into a CEO chair and stomache ulcers.
Shizophrenia was a good trait for aeons, when it came to beeing a priest/shaman, a artist or simply some loner hunter, who could follow prey for weeks without the onslaught of isolation anxiety.
Nothing of this usefullness can be glimpsed today.
In addition - autism seems to manifest itself mostly in the west, so maybee its really new - and its ability to pay the ferrywomans price, directly or indirectly, has yet to be established in societys under crisis.
- ShabbosGoy 9y ago> Shizophrenia was a good trait for aeons, when it came to beeing a priest/shaman, a artist or simply some loner hunter, who could follow prey for weeks without the onslaught of isolation anxiety. I'm not sure how useful schizophrenia would be as a hunter. Being a hunter requires a high degree of inhibitory control and some level of metacognitive ability. Wouldn't constantly hearing voices all the time distract the hunter from hunting and tracking his prey down?
- qb45 9y agoHunter maybe not, but if African shamans themselves apparently recognize schizophrenics as their own then there could be something to it: http://www.jaysongaddis.com/the-shamanic-view-of-mental-illness/ http://www.jaysongaddis.com/the-shamanic-view-of-mental-illn...
- sdiupIGPWEfh 9y agoMy only half-serious musing is that, as with autism, we're all somewhere on the schizophrenic spectrum, in some sense. Hearing one voice in your head is a step above hearing none. Having multiple voices, sourced from different subconscious processes, yet only heard one a time and that you can't distinguish between thus perceiving as a single "you", might be a step above just one.
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- qb45 9y agoAFAIK schizophrenic voices are perceived as indistinguishable from actual, external voices of other people talking. It's a different thing than hearing a voice in one's head and this is what sets schizophrenics apart, not the number of distinct voices.
- gaius 9y agoNot really, medieval period to now is too short a timescale for evolution to operate
- watwut 9y agoWarlords needed to actually fight and be strong physically. Not really the same as being CEO.