For autistic folks: translation, not mere transcription.

Maybe “autistic language” has tokens richer in meaning than has been thought, like the computer programming language APL, employing representational tokens of autistic behavior or an autistic approach, such as “scan for pattern matches”, “what TV show dialog snippet to use?”, etc. This would be the “language of autistic internal monologue”, not “internal dialog”. “Internal narrative” is problematic - who is narrating to whom?

What about other languages which may be more directly expressive, with less ambiguity? Esperanto? Ido? Translation of more-common languages into Esperanto hasn’t been especially successful - why haven’t the more-rational languages been more successful?

And the translation into language - and its transmission - doesn’t feel like social interaction, but rather a gesture like a move in some turn-taking game. As though we were doing digitally what others do analog. The “bit rate” or resolution/granularity of what we do depends on factors including familiarity with the situation, stress level (and its hierarchy of contributing factors...) indeed, everything could be hung under stress level as the primary performance metric.

Here, we are put into the role of short-order cooks trying to assemble/produce an endless series of social “dishes” with which to communicate. It doesn’t help when many of them end up being sent back to the kitchen because they don’t please the customer...

Last revised: June 18, 2007
(c)2007 Dave Spicer
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