5 ms·

AFAIK it is not yet used this way in practice, but I see no reason it couldn't be integrated into AR glasses. This would allow autistic people to interact socia

by mrob 7y ago

AFAIK it is not yet used this way in practice, but I see no reason it couldn't be integrated into AR glasses. This would allow autistic people to interact socially on an equal footing with neurotypical people.

conistonwater 7y ago
This sounds like a misunderstanding of the problems faced by autistic people.
- mrob 7y ago
  Difficulty "reading" emotions is an common and medically accepted symptom of autism spectrum disorders, and there is objectively measured evidence that it is in fact a real symptom. See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15843104 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15843104 This presents a serious problem to people with such disorders, because they may accidentally make people hate them by failing to understand their emotional state. If AR glasses could continually run face detection and emotion detection algorithms, they could be configured to show a warning if a conversation partner is showing signs of boredom or annoyance. Neurotypical people do this subconsciously, so it is a matter of fairness that people without the ability be allowed to use prosthetics.
krageon 7y ago
The idea that people that have autism need to be assisted to be more like neurotypical people (for example by augmenting their ability to perceive emotions) is in a very real sense part of the problem of the treatment that they tend to face. I don't think it's a great idea to take as a given that this is necessary or even desirable.
- mrob 7y ago
  What's your plan for changing human nature? Non-verbal communication of emotion is so important to human communication in general that it seems highly unlikely that any training scheme will overcome the dislike neurotypicals typically feel for communicating with people who fail at this ability. I think the concept of "uncanny valley" is relevant here, which is widely believed to be real by neurotypical people. Something which looks human but does not act as expected of something with human appearance supposedly produces instinctive feelings of revulsion in neurotypical people. The only realistic option for low-risk in-person social interaction between autistic and neurotypical people who do not know each other well enough to predict emotional responses without needing to rely on real-time decoding of non-verbal communication (which is a learnable skill, but try having a conversation about an unrelated subject while busy programming to understand what it's like) is emotion-detecting AR glasses. The alternative is segregation, and lacking AR glasses, many autistic people do self-segregate.
  - krageon 7y ago
    In my experience it's very disturbing in the beginning (I have a very easy time getting annoyed, so it annoyed me), but it is very possible to overcome that with some patience. When you have the tools in your toolbox to do so, it falls on you to be more tolerant to other people. It expands to much more than just interacting with people who have autism, it is a good recipe to interact with anyone different than you. Thus, I don't think I need a plan to change human nature. Collectively, we just need to grow up a little.

by mrob 7y ago

conistonwater 7y ago

This sounds like a misunderstanding of the problems faced by autistic people.

mrob 7y ago
Difficulty "reading" emotions is an common and medically accepted symptom of autism spectrum disorders, and there is objectively measured evidence that it is in fact a real symptom. See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15843104 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15843104 This presents a serious problem to people with such disorders, because they may accidentally make people hate them by failing to understand their emotional state. If AR glasses could continually run face detection and emotion detection algorithms, they could be configured to show a warning if a conversation partner is showing signs of boredom or annoyance. Neurotypical people do this subconsciously, so it is a matter of fairness that people without the ability be allowed to use prosthetics.

krageon 7y ago

The idea that people that have autism need to be assisted to be more like neurotypical people (for example by augmenting their ability to perceive emotions) is in a very real sense part of the problem of the treatment that they tend to face. I don't think it's a great idea to take as a given that this is necessary or even desirable.

mrob 7y ago
What's your plan for changing human nature? Non-verbal communication of emotion is so important to human communication in general that it seems highly unlikely that any training scheme will overcome the dislike neurotypicals typically feel for communicating with people who fail at this ability. I think the concept of "uncanny valley" is relevant here, which is widely believed to be real by neurotypical people. Something which looks human but does not act as expected of something with human appearance supposedly produces instinctive feelings of revulsion in neurotypical people. The only realistic option for low-risk in-person social interaction between autistic and neurotypical people who do not know each other well enough to predict emotional responses without needing to rely on real-time decoding of non-verbal communication (which is a learnable skill, but try having a conversation about an unrelated subject while busy programming to understand what it's like) is emotion-detecting AR glasses. The alternative is segregation, and lacking AR glasses, many autistic people do self-segregate.
- krageon 7y ago
  In my experience it's very disturbing in the beginning (I have a very easy time getting annoyed, so it annoyed me), but it is very possible to overcome that with some patience. When you have the tools in your toolbox to do so, it falls on you to be more tolerant to other people. It expands to much more than just interacting with people who have autism, it is a good recipe to interact with anyone different than you. Thus, I don't think I need a plan to change human nature. Collectively, we just need to grow up a little.