
Autistic People Can Solve Our Cybersecurity Crisis - allenleein
https://www.wired.com/2016/11/autistic-people-can-solve-cybersecurity-crisis/
======
sardonicbryan
Once again science fiction has explored why something like this might not be a
great idea (minor spoilers ahead).

Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky" explores some of the pitfalls of
exploiting the mentally disabled in service of a ubiquitous surveillance
state.

~~~
gizmo686
I think we need to reconsider the blanket conflation of "autistic" and
"mentally disabled". Especially considering that one of the premises of this
article is that autistic people are disproportionately capable of work in
cyber security (which is a knowledge field).

Further, the proposal seems to amount to A) giving those autistic individuals
with a propensity for cyber security a job and B) giving the support in
dealing with the downsides of autism. It is hard to see where the
"exploitation" is happening without arguing that all employee relationships
are exploitative. I suppose you could argue that the fact that autistic people
are underemployed means that we could pay them below market wages. However,
even below market wages could still be very good wages (relative to other
fields, we get paid very well); so this arguement would fall into the
Copenhages Morality trap. [0] The proposal is also consistent with just paying
them market wages, which avoid the problem entirely.

[0] [https://blog.jaibot.com/the-copenhagen-interpretation-of-
eth...](https://blog.jaibot.com/the-copenhagen-interpretation-of-ethics/)

~~~
dogma1138
The ASD spectrum has became sadly a pollack painting at this point where for
nearly a decade people been throwing everything at it but the kitchen sink.

Lately things are changing and likely for the better where autism and I would
say the actual kind is getting back to the spot light with other disorders
either being completely thrown out back to the shrinks couch or being
classified under neurodevelonetal disorder other.

In some countries it became so bad that you don't need to even see a doctor to
be diagnosed with autism with sadly all the perks it gives you including
almost magical shield against dismissal, and yes people are taking advantage
of it.

I've seen 25-35 highly intelligent and not specifically socially awkward
people being diagnosed on the spectrum these days by private diagnosis centers
in the U.K. without as much as seeing one doctor.

Niether these people nor likely Turing are exploitable nor in a position to
ignore what they see or be incorruptible, they aren't some mentally disabled
drones with free processing power or mentats.

And those who are and need constant assistance while might have some amazing
skills aren't trainable to be analysts.

There is something wrong today when parents say "our child got diagnosed with
autism" and instead of hearing sorry they hear wow they'll be great at math, I
would like to see the authors of this article actually spend and hour at a
assisted home for the autistic it might prevent them from writing this crap.

