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Let's Cure Autism! (Health)
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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Hey everyone. Let's find the cure to autism!!!
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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Naw... on second thought. Curing autism will take far too much work. Let's waste some time daydreaming instead.

Let's use our imaginations.

We will imagine ourselves as xenothropologists who have traveled to another planet. There, we find an interesting new life form. Let us say that this new life form is something familiar: An ape-like being, having two arms, two legs and a head, which lives in social groups together with others of its kind.

Now let us imagine something a little strange and different about this "ape". Let's imagine this creature secretes, through pores on its face, a sickly-sweet substance that tastes (we discover) very much like cotton candy!

Now why in the world would this creature have evolved such a mechanism??? Pores on its face that secrete cotton candy???

Any ideas?
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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I would first want to examine the length of its tongue.

If it could reach all parts of the ape's face, I would conclude that the animal was insectivorous and could lie around in a hammock all day waiting for snacks.

But if the planet was devoid of insects... it might just encourage social interaction with other members of its species.
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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Chad wrote:
But if the planet was devoid of insects.. it might just encourage social interaction with other members of its species.


How might it do that?
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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If your own tongue can't reach all of your own secretions, you might want to enter into reciprocal agreements with other individuals, to lick each other's tasty bits.
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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Further study of the creature reveals that the sweet-tasting secretion is exuded from the facial pores only when the creature experiences high anxiety (sometimes after a near-escape from a predator or after having received a wound) or when in extreme excitement.

For what reason might such a unique mechanism have evolved? No other creature on the planet shares this characteristic.
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Grant



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When the creature is distressed others gather round him to lick him. This makes him feel comforted and increases the chance that others will be eaten, not him.
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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Grant wrote:
When the creature is distressed others gather round him to lick him...


Yes. In fact, further investigation demonstrates that this occurs.

You have hypothesized that...

This makes him feel comforted and increases the chance that others will be eaten, not him.


...but here is where our investigation takes a turn for the bizarre.

The boys in the lab have just come back with the results of a battery of tests conducted on the cotton-candy secretions. They have discovered that the substance isn't just flavored sugar; it contains minute dosages of chemicals known to be toxic to the apes.

The shocking truth: When one animal is being "comforted" by the others, it is spreading toxins to the entire community.

Why?
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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Are all members of the community equally drawn to the pleasures of the secretion, whilst at the same time being equally susceptible to the toxin?
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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Chad wrote:
Are all members of the community equally drawn to the pleasures of the secretion, whilst at the same time being equally susceptible to the toxin?

We can assume small individual variance around a mean. Generally speaking, all are equally drawn to the secretion and all are equally suseptible to the toxins.
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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The most vulnerable members of the community would be the individuals most likely to be traumatized into becoming secretors. At that same time they would also be less likely to be comforters. This would allow for a period of detoxification, allowing a formerly vulnerable individual to recover and take up the role of comforter.

Conversely, those who had been doing the most comforting would gradually build up toxin levels that would eventually lead to their vulnerability.

This system would provide a degree of protection for individuals when they most need it, it would promote peer bonding and would ensure that all members of the community experience the highs and the lows of communal living... encouraging empathy and understanding.
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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Chad wrote:
The most vulnerable members of the community would be the individuals most likely to be traumatized into becoming secretors. At that same time they would also be less likely to be comforters. This would allow for a period of detoxification, allowing a formerly vulnerable individual to recover and take up the role of comforter.

Conversely, those who had been doing the most comforting would gradually build up toxin levels that would eventually lead to their vulnerability.


Chad, as Dan often says, tuck this behind your ear for later. It may be valuable as a counter-point to my analysis.

But let's try something else first.

Might some other purpose be served by the ingestion, by one subject, of a chemical agent from another -- an agent our lab boys tell us is a "toxin"?
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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Then these secretions would be addictive as well as tasty?
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Hatty
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In: Berkshire
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If everyone in the group is infected with the toxin they'll suffer the consequences, whatever they are, equally; apart, that is, from the exceptions, the less sociable members. The ones who remain aloof would have a distinct advantage over the rest wouldn't they?
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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Hatty wrote:
The ones who remain aloof would have a distinct advantage over the rest wouldn't they?


Would they? Keep them in mind.
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