While it’s true that we shouldn’t conflate rationality with autism (too much), there are some traits autistics have that highly rational people also share.
Can we conflate it with high functioning autism if we consider Star trek’s Spock to be the ultimate rationalist?
No. Spock is an awful rationalist. He a) doesn’t acknowledge his emotions when they exist b) repeatedly makes probability estimates of things being very unlikely that turn out to be wrong c) claims that actors are acting irrationally when they aren’t (or when they just disagree with his values). In fact, Spock is the original Straw Vulcan (which incidentally lists many more problems with Spock).
We need to stop conflating rationality with autism.
We also need to stop conflating both of those with sociopathy. Autism != sociopathy.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=people-with-aspergers-less-likely-t-2010-05-29
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081015110228.htm
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/06/autistic-economics.html
While it’s true that we shouldn’t conflate rationality with autism (too much), there are some traits autistics have that highly rational people also share.
Can we conflate it with high functioning autism if we consider Star trek’s Spock to be the ultimate rationalist?
No. Spock is an awful rationalist. He a) doesn’t acknowledge his emotions when they exist b) repeatedly makes probability estimates of things being very unlikely that turn out to be wrong c) claims that actors are acting irrationally when they aren’t (or when they just disagree with his values). In fact, Spock is the original Straw Vulcan (which incidentally lists many more problems with Spock).