Re:Emotion-detecting tech should be restricted by law
by krageon on Monday December 16, 2019 @06:57AM
(#21802421)
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.
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Re:Emotion-detecting tech should be restricted by law
by mrob on Monday December 16, 2019 @09:02AM
(#21803009)
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.
Re:Emotion-detecting tech should be restricted by law
by krageon on Monday December 16, 2019 @09:56AM
(#21803401)
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.