CitizenKane
Joined 17 years ago
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1,172
Submissions
225
Member since
Jun 16
Putting this one to bed...
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Comment · 2 years ago
Yes, I'm autistic and I regularly take lactobacillus reuteri which has helped my gut quite a bit. I wouldn't say it was a massive shift, but it certainly has been really nice. There's at least some evidence that this bacteria is deficient in autistic individuals and supplementation can help with that.[1]
Comment · 2 years ago
I'd like to add a little bit of water to this particular fire. I'm autistic and I've read numerous studies along this vein. In short, yes there's a strong link between gut flora and brain development however autism (and presumably ADHD) is a heterogeneous condition with a variety of interrelated causes.
Personally, I can say that this likely is a proximate cause for me as I got a bad staph infection at just a few months old and naturally I was treated by antibiotics. However, I also have quite a few genes that are associated with autism as well. So while there's an increasingly clear picture, I'd hesitate to say what exactly is and isn't a cause of being autistic.
Comment · 2 years ago
What an interesting tale and gripping read. I've lived in China and surprised that I've never heard of this before.
For those unaware, not a whole lot has changed since that time unfortunately. China has had certain periods where they had opened up somewhat, but those days are long gone to my knowledge. If anything the repression may be even greater these days in some ways, though at least there isn't any kind of mass starvation going on as far as I'm aware.
The current system also seems to be more of a riff on the old imperial system rather than something fundamentally new. In the past it was an imperial examination to join the Mandarin class[1], now it's a test to join the CPC [2]. Either way, if you don't get in your opportunities are limited.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_(bureaucrat) [2] https://daily.jstor.org/communist-party-of-china/
Comment · 2 years ago
It's a fascinating read, and makes a lot of sense why it's so hard to develop a commercial aircraft that actually ends up being profitable. One thing that got me wondering, and maybe someone here might know this, is why hasn't Boeing attempted to miniaturize the 787 as opposed to continually re-purposing the 737? From the outsider's (and complete layman's) view it seems like this would be a more sensible way to build a successful modern aircraft in that vein as opposed to trying to repurpose a design which is now well over half a century old.
I fly a fair amount an honestly the 787 is an impressive aircraft. I'm surprised that Boeing hasn't tried to take what they learned from their developments there and apply them in a way that could potentially help them recoup the costs of that program.
Comment · 2 years ago
Thanks for the reply! That makes a lot of sense given where it is right now. Hopefully it will flesh out over time, but I'll definitely be giving it a look!
Comment · 2 years ago
GPUI is looking more and more interesting by the day. I haven't had the chance to dig into it. Can anyone with experience comment some more on how it compares to other UI frameworks? Seems like it's a really compelling alternative to things out there. On the surface, seems almost like a rust variant of Qt, but not having to deal with C++ potentially makes it much more widely applicable.
Comment · 2 years ago
To add to what others said here, another salient factor is that in Taiwan it's pretty possible to get late night food, drink, and other things. These things are almost non-existent in the US which would make working night shifts extra rough.
Comment · 2 years ago
They do, but they don't produce any of their leading edge chips in mainland China, just as they won't be in the USA either. Looking at the wording of my post I should have made the leading edge part more clear. My mistake there!
Comment · 2 years ago
They're close, but I believe they're not doing any 3nm manufacturing at the moment but I could be wrong about that.
Comment · 2 years ago
Currently TSMC has the only leading edge chip fabrications plants (fabs) on the planet and they're all located in Taiwan. They account for all new chips for all new Apple products, all new AMD products, most new Nvidia products, etc. Most companies design the the chips, but then outsource the manufacturing of them to TSMC as building a fab has astronomical upfront costs.
TSMC has acquired a lead in this area through a number of different methods. One of the main things is that they focus deeply on manufacturing. Another is that they work 24 hours a day in R&D, running 3 shifts so they basically have the lights on all the time. And as mentioned above, the upfront costs are incredibly high with a fab costing on the order of 20+ billion dollars to construct.
Intel is attempting to catch up, but it will likely be another 3 to 5 years before they are able to do so. Honestly just having R&D up and going all the time is probably a huge advantage for TSMC and probably a big reason behind their success. Regardless, suffice to say basically all cutting edge product shipments would cease in a matter of months if TSMC fabs were destroyed.
Comment · 2 years ago
Wow, he has a better commit graph than me. Very impressive, especially considering that Weezer is still active. Time to step up my game.
Comment · 2 years ago
But if the universe is a simulation, who is simulating the simulator?
Comment · 2 years ago
Fellow autistic person here, and in my mind you've hit the nail on the head.
It's an information game for sure, like trying to drink from a fire hose of information and make sense of it somehow. I guess it's a matter of using Fourier analysis in a way, but that's a hard ask to do on your own thoughts, feelings, and sensations.
Comment · 2 years ago
Not a clinician or anything, but I'm autistic and honestly you sound pretty similar to me. In fact I'm writing this from Singapore where I'm surrounded by folks haha. I don't think being autistic is really what it's made out to be frankly, and the description of the condition is generally the outsider's view not the insider's view.
Some autistic folks will avoid sensory stimulation while others seek it out. I'm definitely one of the ones that seeks it out and I'm pretty extroverted. It's a heterogeneous condition, and indeed a spectrum. Who knows for your situation, but you may be autistic.
That being said though, I think the important thing isn't the neurotype but rather that you've found what matters to you and what makes you happy. At the end of the day that's what counts, not the underlying neurology.
Comment · 2 years ago
I'm autistic and while it's nice to see ongoing research, I can't help but feel like this misses the point somewhat.
In particular I've seen a number of studies that make the jump from Fragile X syndrome to autism which I think is ill advised to say the least. There are a large number of genes[1] that are related to autistic individuals, and it's a very heterogeneous condition. In particular many, perhaps even most autistic individuals don't suffer from intellectual disability, don't have any physical characteristics which would set them apart from others, and don't tend to have problems with memory. All of these are characteristics of Fragile X syndrome.
> “Imagine being at a party, talking to a friend while music is playing in the background,” Frick says. “You have to integrate the sound of their voice with the movement of their lips.” But if there’s variability in sensory processing, socializing will be more challenging, he says.
And I'll take issue with this in particular. Frankly, the social issues of autistic individuals are wildly overstated and can be easily explained. Believe me, I know quite a few autistic folks and none of them have issues understanding when someone is speaking, we can tell. However, trying to sync up different minds that operate in different ways is a difficult problem.
Even among men and women with the same neurotype there's enough difference to cause _substantial_ misunderstandings. Enough ink has been spilled on the topic of relations between the sexes to fill oceans. And the difference between neurotypes is far more substantial than the difference between sexes in this regard. It's very easy for me to socialize with other autistic folks, I've had many conversations that have lasted hours on end. Doing the same thing with someone who is neurotypical though is much more difficult, and usually requires a willingness to put up with the awkwardness of not having the same vibe.
Finally, I won't go into anything about using mouse models for complex neurological conditions at the moment. But suffice to say, this article would be more properly titled "Noisy brain may underlie some of Fragile X syndrome's sensory features", but that probably doesn't get the same amount of attention.