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| Newer page: | version 5 | Last edited on Friday, June 26, 2015 2:08:21 pm | by JimRichards | |
| Older page: | version 4 | Last edited on Saturday, March 22, 2003 9:04:24 pm | by GlynWebster | Revert |
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[[''In [Greg Egan's | http://www.netspace.net.au/~gregegan/] science fiction novel ''Distress'' autism has been discovered to be caused by a lesion to the (fictional) Lamont's Area of the brain. It can be cured, in some cases, by stem-cell grafts. In this passage James Rourke the spokesman for the Voluntary Autists Association is being interviewed for the documentary series ''Junk DNA'':'' ]
. . . .
-"Of course, most animals will instinctively protect their young, or their mates, at a cost to themselves; altruism is an ancient behavioural strategy. But how could ''instinctive altruism be made compatible with human self-awareness? Once there was a burgeoning ego, a growing sense of self in the foreground of ever
action, how was it prevented from overshadowing everything else?
+"Of course, most animals will instinctively protect their young, or their mates, at a cost to themselves; altruism is an ancient behavioural strategy. But how could ''instinctive altruism be made compatible with human self-awareness? Once there was a burgeoning ego, a growing sense of self in the foreground of every
action, how was it prevented from overshadowing everything else?
"The answer is, evolution invented ''intimacy''. Intimacy makes it possible to attach some, or all, of the compelling qualities associated with the ego - the model of the self - to models of other people. And not just possible - pleasurable. A pleasure reinforced by sex, but not restricted to the act, like orgasm. And not even restricted to sexual partners, in humans. Intimacy is just the belief - rewarded by the brain - that you ''know'' the people you love in almost the same fashion you know yourself."
. . . .
