Did Spock Have Autism or Aspergers Spock's Meltdown and other clip examples included

As an aspie myself, I'm so happy that this video exists. Thank you. 💫

Brilliant I spent the majority of my life not knowing why I struggle so much with people. Its easier to build a radio and communicate with someone hundreds of miles away than to communicate a feeling to someone standing next to me.

"people on the spectrum love to take you on tangential asides" Yes! I do this often. I'll start a sentence, have a commaed aside (and then go even deeper into a paranthetic aside) but I try to avoid going into a bracketed aside; though I am quite fond of semicolon afterthoughts.

Dave, I am the father of a high functioning autistic son. I have studied and read and researched for years in hopes to understand him better and help him on his life’s journey. It wasn’t until I found this channel and Dave’s Garage, that I started seeing that I personally share so many of these traits. I ordered your book, and while I am only on page 18, and I have already hit so many WTF turns in various memories of my own life. I will be reaching out to my doctor on Monday to see about setting up testing for myself. It is shocking. It is dismaying. It scares me to my core, yet, it feels somewhat freeing to see if what I have experienced in my life has a diagnosis and the possibility of treatment. Thank you for your honesty, your dedication, and your work at Microsoft. I have used your code daily in my professional life since downloading a ripped beta of Chicago so many many years ago.

We're an entire spectrum family. It's so good to see this video. My wife has recently discovered she's on the spectrum & I'm clearly there. Both of our kids are also of course fully autistic. One child, on his own is making his own computer museum & has learned programming in scratch. The other is pretty much a universal animal whisperer. He can pet deer & skunks without any ill effects. In my belief, it's an evolutionary change for something we haven't seen yet.

My similar moment: When I was a young adult, a girl I was in love with one day asked me: "How would you react if one day, when coming back from work, you'd find me in your living holding my baby". My immediate response was: "I'd ask you how did you get inside if you haven't got the key?"

Most likely around 1983. “We have a house on the water”. That got me thinking for hours and hours - how do we get to the house? By boat? By raft? How is it supported on the water? Do you find it hard to leave and go do stuff? Do you get supplies delivered regularly? Good times. I’ve often found that moments like these, as an adult, allow metro come up with super creative ideas most people wouldn’t consider. +1 for the career. In the personal life, it leads to a lot of interpersonal problems - because I just can’t seem to grasp what you are trying to convey, and am usually more amused by what pictures my imagination has provided.

LOL. I remember a friend of mine saying "people in glass houses shouldn't throw rocks" And my immediate response was "of course not,,,you'd break the glass" She looked at me funny thinking I was joking. Then it hit me that it wasn't supposed to be taken literally and I acted like I got the true meaning. Which I did, but just took me a few more seconds. :)

I imagine this is common but the amount of time my friends mention that i just completely shut down a lot of subtle flirting and keep talking about how far the clicks sperm whales use for communication can travel, about the interesting way they basically encode data into said clicks and the fact they can be over 100dB. I sometimes i see people staring eagerly, then get a more dissapointed look when they realise i'm not bringing up sperm whales to make a joke. I've had many times when someone will ask questions with no expectations of an answer, and i pull one out of my rolodex of ideas swimming around my brain, i also have a habit of trying to answer rhetorical questions like "do you think it's okay to be talking in class?" "Well, in fairness, you were talking first much louder than I was" or "do you think this is funny?" "Not really, but I decided to go with that option because shouting back doesn't seem appropriate" so yeah. I was diagnosed at 14, it was like the difference between greyscale and HDR, but the thing I dislike a bit about the term "high functioning" makes some people assume I can do calculus in my head or some other impressive feat, when really i can just almost get by in life, but can also happily explain in detail most of the subjects i care deeply about.

Spock, Data, Odo and Seven of Nine. The same type of characteristics. I would add Worf as well for various reasons in his interactions with the crew and his dedication to his routine (he likes things to be as he likes it). I remember being obsessed with Lego's, much like the "tribal Tesla" flint napper. As to lingual innuendo, my home language Afrikaans, contains many words which meaning change depending on context, so you kind of become used to highly descriptive and ambiguous meanings coupled to sentences. Selecting the correct interpretation is easier due to the situation on hand providing an additional layer of filtering, but not always.

very relevent to me. i have ADHD and probably on the spectrum but i was diagnosed in the 90's as a boy. i am impressed by your work and your courage to speak openly and frankly. thank you dave. you're an inspiration.

I've often wondered, was the entire Vulcan culture based on autistic (or at least Aspergers) behaviour being the norm and non-spectrum behaviour being considered atypical? (Perhaps explaining the ancient rift with the ancestors who went on to become the Romulans?) I find it interesting how, long before we had a label for it, we dealt with different levels of what could be considered autistic traits. Monks & nuns secluding in distant monasteries & convents, hand-copying the bible or devoting themselves to other arguably-obsessive tasks in very structured environments. Folks secluding themselves in academia etc.... I wonder if labelling and pathologising this behaviour is a pro or a con? Without the convenience of a label, we're forced to deal with the nuanced reality of the individual rather than the clean (if rough) abstraction of the label. 🤔

Love the extremely dry delivery mixed with the sound effect to deliver the punchline. It really makes your point.

"I'm pulling your leg", said to me by my grandfather approximately 40 years ago, which lead to me looking at my legs in great confusion.

I can't think of any specific examples off the top of my head but that story about the imagined horse really resonates with me, there were so many situations like that for me as a child and sometimes even now

I am in the process of getting an Autism diagnosis and have been researching it and the effects it has on people with ASD. I believe that I am autistic as at this point I have read a few studies, taken the psychometrics and talked to a psychiatrist on the matter. I have always connected with Spock and one of the earliest books I read was from Linnard Nemoy I Am Not Spock, which made me feel kind of bad because he felt that people expected him to be less human than the next person. I felt like Linnard Nemoy did not understand when writing that book that there were people who would look at this as an assault on who they were. After reading this as I am younger I read the book I Am Spock, also by Linnard Nemoy. As a kid, this gave me hope as I would say the general primus of the book is the idea that the way he represented Spock and those who wanted to see him as that role model was wrong. I wanted to meet him ever since I was a child. Sadly that will never come true. I want to say that being younger I grew up with Data in TNG and the comments you make about him are true. I would also state, however, that Data held a special place in my heart in that he felt the struggle that I felt constantly while growing up. It seemed that everyone else was somehow human and I was not. I liked in the end that Data was perceived as one of the most "human" characters on the show. While I don't relate Data to autism I would like to say that there are many parallels to some of the things that young undiagnosed children will see as a representation of the confusion we have in society.

Selective mutism when overwhelmed by emotion is another feature, I believe. I relate this to what you said about Spock not having language for emotions.

What would your consideration be when somebody asks you a question but you usually pause before answering. Some questions appear simple like "How was your day?". That makes me have to think "All events of the day to this point?","Do you really want to hear this?","This is just filler talk","Maybe they are interested"... and a hundred others. Franky it is exhausting and would rather ignore people than find a response in which would be considered "proper". Will always find coding easier than dealing with humans. Always figured it was because I was diagnosed with PTSD, OCD & anxiety issues. Purchased your book and I am loving it.

Oh, Man! Not even a spoiler alert before you tell us Spock is an alien?! 😱🥺😂

Long before my diagnosis of ASD I saw Spock as very much a role model.