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Title: Change Your Mind Author: Mason Frost Date: Nov 2016 Language: en Topics: anarcho-transhumanism, neurodiversity, ableism Source: http://anarchotranshuman.org/ Issue #3, Nov 2016
My brain is not like your brain. This becomes more true if, unlike me,
you are not afflicted by chronic depression. It becomes more true if you
are a child. It also becomes more true if you are on the autistic
spectrum. But even if you do not suffer from chronic depression, or if
you are a child, or on the autistic spectrum, that does not make your
brain like others who share those differences from me. You might be
right or left-handed, you might possess some other chemical difference
that gives you mood swings, or causes you to hear or see things others
don't, or any other number of effects. Hell, maybe someday some
heretofore unknown sentience will be consuming these words with the
half-interest of an archaeologist who knows how wrong we all are about
so many things, but still wants to know in just what way we were all
wrong.
Autism, though, is not a single difference. That's the whole reason
there's a spectrum. Autism manifests in many different ways, and can be
subtle enough to never be diagnosed, or something that is much harder to
miss. Even within the autistic spectrum, there are such great
differences that it can be hard for one person to even understand what
is going through the mind of another.
All of this is why the concept of neurodiversity needs to exist. Because
we all have to acknowledge these differences, and it's important to know
just how different one human mind can be from another. And it is also
important that we not fall into a hierarchical mode of thinking about
minds; the longstanding approach that has kept countless people locked
away because no one knew how to reach them through their schizophrenia,
or their manic-depression, or any other thing that made their mind
different. Because different is not worse, it's just different.
But the current movement towards this egalitarian approach has some
problematic elements that really cannot be ignored. Some of it is the
usual – opportunistic elements that take advantage of the noble core,
the occasional focus on particular language over nuanced understanding,
and a few folks here and there who just don't get it but can hum the
right tune – but some is deeper and more concerning. And from what I've
observed, one problem stands above the rest.
Neurodiversity should not stand in the way of people taking agency over
their own minds.
At the very core of transhumanism is this: we should all have full
control over ourselves. But if that agency doesn't extend to our minds,
then it is incomplete. We all must have the ability and the choice to
think however we so choose. And that doesn't just mean having our own
thoughts and opinions. It must include our modes of thinking, our
hardware and our software. To advocate anything less is a failure of
this core value.
And so, we run into the issue that I have with a number of folks talking
about neurodiversity. They have gone from demanding that people of all
braintypes be treated with respect and decency, to jealously protecting
their own particular neurological structures. And if that were the
extent of it, that would be acceptable. I'm suspicious of anyone who is
100% OK with their brain all day every day, but fine – it's your brain,
do what you want with it.
But some of these folks have such hostility to the idea of their minds
being changed that they take umbrage at other people who express a
desire to change their own. And that, I cannot abide. Imagine if there
were a contingent of clinically depressed people standing in the way of
research that could alter the brains of depressed people in such a way
to make them not depressed, all because they were fighting for the
rights of depressed people not to be marginalized. I don't know about
you, but I would be fucking pissed. Well, this is going on right now in
regards to research about autism.
Obviously autism is not depression, but the comparison is not meant to
be an equivocation. Besides which, I can't speak for autistic people,
but I can speak to my personal experience with depression, which is
similarly invisible, and happens to have its own stereotypes and
misunderstandings to contend with. I can only hope that this comparison
is taken in good faith, as an attempt to empathize, by people with
autism. (And yes, I am going to alternate my terms, because there's
basically no real consensus on which is better and I sure as hell am not
going to be the one to crack that particular code... also every person
I've met who has been diagnosed as being on the spectrum could not give
less of a shit about that particular dilemma.)
Let's talk for a bit about John Elder Robinson. He is by no means the
only autistic person who advocates for people with autism. But his
particular story happens to involve a possible method for altering a
person's brain so that they are no longer autistic. In his case,
transcranial magnetic stimulation had an effect on his mind that allowed
him to experience a perspective he had previously been unaware of. I
won't speak for him, since when the story broke enough people already
did that. (Plus you can read all about his experiences in his books and
this article
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/an-experimental-autism-treatment-cost-me-my-marriage)
But whatever his personal journey was like, he willingly entered the
experimental procedure knowing full well what the intent was. And not
once has he denounced that line of research. From everything I know, the
man is decidedly pro-science. And this has gotten him a lot of hate.
There have been death threats due to his stance on the procedure. People
want to kill a man because he believes that autistic people deserve the
chance to choose whether or not they remain autistic. People with autism
certainly should have the choice to remain autistic, and it is
viscerally sickening to hear some parents speak about their children as
if being diagnosed with autism is a fate worse than death. But being
against the possibility of autistic people (or people who are allistic,
I.E. neurotypical) changing themselves is fundamentally not transhuman,
and it is a spit in the face of people with autism who might choose to
experience life as an allistic person.
The bottom line is this; It's not your fucking choice. You don't get to
decide what is right for a marginalized group you are not a part of, and
for that matter, being in that group doesn't mean you get to decide what
is right for individuals within that group. Not to mention that this
sort of mentality is at the festering heart of the disgusting tendency
to claim to stand for a marginalized group at the same time as denying a
voice to that same group. I'm looking at you, Autism Speaks.
If a blind person wishes to see, don't stand in the way. If a person
feels their body doesn't match their gender, let them change. If someone
wants an implant to increase their memory, don't tell them to get a
fucking notepad. And if someone decides they no longer want their mind
to function in a particular way, and you say “No, you cant!” then you're
just an asshole, plain and simple. Let science help everyone to change
their minds all they want. Because one day, when we've finally won
against the enemies of birth control and cyborgs and bodyhackers and
transgender folk, that is going to be the next boundary that we, as
transhumanists, must break through.