The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. To find the corresponding locations in the text of this digital version, please use the “search” function on your e-reader. Note that not all terms may be searchable.
abduction, 156–57
access
costs of, 43, 49–50, 61–62
to culture, 41, 42–43, 61–63
to web content, 47, 49–50
acculturation, 106–7, 111
addictions, 46, 55–56, 140, 142
adults with autism, 37
advanced civilizations, 224–28
advertising, 43, 139–41, 211
aesthetic values, 173–92
and autistics, 173–75
canons of, 94, 190–91
and cultural criticism, 188
judgments about, 176
and neurodiversity, 189
and neurology, 174, 175–79, 184–92
role of perception in, 177
affiliations, 87
Alchian, Armen A., 49
Alchian and Allen Theorem, 49–50
Alcoholics Anonymous, 84
Alighieri, Dante, 128
alexa.com, 46
Allen, William R., 49
Amazon.com, 47, 62, 85
amusia, 179–80
Anarchy, State, and Utopia (Nozick), 142
Andersen, Hans Christian, 166
animal intelligence, 224
AOL, 47
Argentina, 206–7
Ariely, Dan, 80–81, 124
articulable interests, 87
Asperger, Hans, 28, 189–90
Asperger’s LiveJournal discussion group, 35
Asperger’s syndrome
and aesthetic values, 174, 180–81
behaviors and traits associated with, 30–31
community building in, 214
and discrimination, 197
high achievers with, 23, 24, 26, 166–67
media coverage of, 34, 154
perseverations, 169
relation to autism, 22
and support groups, 23–24, 35
Atkinson, Michael, 157
atonal music, 182–86, 187, 188
attention spans, 53–55
Attwood, Tony, 213
Australia, 207
autism and autistic individuals, 15–40
behaviors and traits associated with, 30–31 (see also specific traits)
and Buddhism, 92–94
as a cognitive profile, 17–18, 194
cognitive strengths associated with, 15, 17–19, 21, 23, 30, 37, 39, 40, 57, 166–67, 189
cognitive weaknesses associated with, 19–20, 21, 27, 37, 57, 166
and communication, 20, 35, 73–74, 132–33, 168, 212–13, 218
defining, 16–17, 23, 39–40
diagnostic criteria for, 39
and education, 107, 109–11, 115, 215
in fiction, 147–48, 160–66 (see also Holmes, Sherlock)
high achievers with, 23, 24–26, 28–30, 166–68, 180–82
mobilizing talents of, 214–15
and politics, 194–200, 203, 209
public perception of, 15–16, 22, 31, 32–33, 176, 221–22
rates of, 36, 37–38
“recovery” from, 26–27
social hostility toward, 38–39
social intelligence and interactions, 20–21, 27, 31–35, 170, 212
and stories, 129–32, 135–36, 140–41
variance of outcomes in, 21, 23, 39
See also Asperger’s syndrome; neurodiversity
Autreat conference, 152
Baggs, Amanda, 35
Bailenson, Jeremy, 86–87
Bainbridge, David A., 34
Barber, Benjamin R., 198
Baron-Cohen, Simon, 24
Bartók, Béla, 166
beauty, 41. See also aesthetic values
Bedpost.com, 11–12
behavioral economics, 124–25, 126
Bell, Gordon, 98
Bell, Joseph, 160
Belmonte, Matthew, 28–29
Bewitched, 128
Bildungsroman (life development story), 119
Bittman, Mark, 56
BitTorrent, 24
Black, Fischer, 96–97
Blackburn, Jared, 170
Blogger.com, 47
blogs, 45–46, 74–78, 85–86, 119
Bollywood, 127
Boswell, James, 168
Bourdieu, Pierre, 177
Boyden, Ed, 97
Brafman, Ori, 124
Brafman, Rom, 124
Bridgewater Treatise (Roget), 29
Brightkite.com, 12
Brochet, Frederic, 79
Buddhism, 91–96, 99–100, 105, 191
Buffett, Warren, 30
Burke, Edmund, 203
business meetings, 114
Canada, 207
Carr, Nicholas, 54
Carroll, Lewis, 166
catastrophe in art, 175
Cavendish, Henry, 166
The Celestine Prophecy (Redfield), 101
cell phones, 72, 76
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 120
Chapman, Sandi, 32
children with autism, 37
Chile, 206–7
choice at the margin, 143, 144, 145
Chopra, Deepak, 101
Cicero, 89
CNN.com, 135
Cohen, Bram, 24
collecting, 102–5
communication, 65–89
and autistics, 20, 32, 35, 73–74, 132–33, 168, 212–13, 218
Facebook, 81–84
and framing effects, 78–81, 82–83, 89
importance of the medium, 65, 67, 69
instant messaging (IM), 50–51, 66–71, 84
micro-blogging, 74–78
print media, 43–44, 66, 201
RSS (Really Simple Syndication), 85–86
texting, 72–74
verbal communication, 20, 35
written communication, 35, 213
community building, 214
compassion for others, 32–35
competition, 89, 142
complements, problem of, 102–3
concentration. See focusing
Constitution of Liberty (Hayek), 201
consumer satisfaction, 120
control of information, 4–5
conversation summaries, 97
coordination, 132–33, 134
corruption, 208
cosmopolitanism, 196–99, 201, 203
“The Costs of Autism” (Ganz), 34
countries, travel to, 104–5
Cowansage, Kiriana, 173–75, 187–88
Cowen, Tyler (nine-year-old), 86
Craigslist, 24, 47
creativity, 58
Critique of Pure Reason (Kant), 205
culture
access to, 41, 42–43, 61–63
and acculturation, 106–7
addiction to, 55–56
and attention spans, 53–55
costs of, 43
cultural literacy, 59
culture of small bits, 43–44, 50–51
diversity in, 198, 218–21
effect of the internet on, 46
and information overload, 50–51
and instant messaging, 70–71
and least-common-denominator effect, 134
and multitasking, 51–53, 56–57
romance compared to, 42, 60–62
sampling of, 41, 44–48
self-assembled blends of, 51–52, 56–58, 65, 67, 154
term, 41–42
ugliness of, 41, 59–60, 62, 63
value in, 9
Dalai Lama, 92, 95, 96, 156
Danto, Arthur, 191
Darwin, Charles, 25, 166
Dawson, Michelle, 27–28
daydreaming, 108–9
Declaration of Independence, 200
Delicious, 10–11
De Martino, Benedetto, 195
democracy, 207
detail-oriented personalities, 148–49, 176, 189
Dickinson, Emily, 166
difficulties experienced by autistics, 110, 212
Digg lists, 55
Dirac, Paul, 25, 166
discrimination aimed at autistics, 197, 221–22
Distinction (Bourdieu), 177
diversity, 198
division of labor, 215–16
Don Giovanni (Mozart), 57–58
Donohoo, Mark, 3
Don Quixote (Cervantes), 120–21
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, 148, 153, 154, 155–56, 160
Drake Equation, 224–25
Dudley, Leonard, 65
Dylan, Bob, 166
Dyson, Esther, 49
eating habits, 31
eBay, 47, 85
Eco, Umberto, 156
economics, 121–22, 123–26, 129, 202
Edison, Thomas, 25, 166
education, 105–15
and acculturation, 106–7
and aesthetic values, 177
and autistic cognitive skills, 107, 109–11, 115, 215
and face-to-face instruction, 111–15
and focusing, 108–9, 115
limits of, 211
rate of return on, 115
signaling model of, 106, 110
8hands.com, 9
Einstein, Albert, 25, 166
email, 52, 78
e-memory, 98
employment, 69
endowment effect, 195–96, 199
engineering, 24
ethics, codes of, 199
evangelical Protestants, 107
everytrail.com, 12
exchange, benefits of, 218
expectations, 60–61, 81–82, 124
experience machine, 142–46
“Explaining Enhanced Logical Consistency During Decision Making in Autism” (De Martino et al.), 195
eye contact, 31, 36
eyesight, 18
and advanced civilizations, 227–28
and framing effects, 81–84
groups in, 86, 87
and mental ordering, 7–8, 12, 13
popularity of, 47
facial recognition, 25, 132
Fasanella, Kathleen, 1
Fauron, M., 104
FeedDemon, 85–86
Fein, Deborah, 26
Feldman, Morton, 44
Fermi, Enrico, 223
Fermi Paradox, 223, 225, 227
films, 114, 134
Finding Angela Shelton (Shelton), 86
Finland, 219–21
Finland: Cultural Lone Wolf (Lewis), 220
Flickr, 11
focal points, 130–32, 133, 136
focusing
of Adam Smith, 168
of autistics, 92–94, 109, 111
and education, 108–9, 115
folksonomy, 11
food preferences, 31
framing effects
and articulable interests, 89
and autistics, 196
and communication, 78–84
defined, 6
and the experience machine, 143–44
and Facebook, 81–84
and mental ordering, 6–7
freedom, 200–201, 208–9
Freud, Sigmund, 103, 179
Friedman, Milton, 179
FriendFeed, 9
friendship, 81–82, 85, 208
Fuser, 9
Ganz, Michael L., 34
Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS, 12
Gates, Bill, 25
Gathera, 9
gender imbalances, 69–70
genetic component of autism, 36
The Glass Bead Game (Hesse), 160–66
Gödel, Kurt, 202
Godfather series, 134
goods, 139–40
and articulable interests, 88–89
and attention spans, 53, 54–55
and dress code, 130
and mental ordering, 13
popularity of, 46
Google Earth, 10, 131
Googlegänger, 86
Google Reader, 85–86
Google Sky, 10
Gore, Thomas, 25
Gould, Glenn, 25, 166, 167
Grandin, Temple, 24–25, 180, 216, 219
Great Depression, vii
groups, 87
groupthink, 197
Guevara, Ernesto “Che,” 179
Guinness World Records, 105
Halberstadt, Germany, 44
Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders, 38
Hanson, Robin, 193–94
Harlequin novels, 127
Harry Potter series, 128, 133
Hart-Davis, Guy, 5
Hassan, Mohammed, 86
Hayek, Friedrich A., 201–3
Heidegger, Martin, 142
Herodotus, 199
Hesse, Hermann, 160–66
historical figures, 166–67
Hofstetter, Steve, 8
Holmes, Mycroft (fictional character), 151–53
Holmes, Sherlock (fictional character), 148–60
brother of, 151–53
commercial success of series, 156, 165
detail-oriented personality of, 148–49, 156, 158–59
orderliness of, 150, 159
powers of reasoning of, 152, 153, 156–57
social intelligence and interactions of, 149–50, 154, 156, 157
Holt, Molly, 26
The Holy Grail, 137
homo ordo, 13
House, Gregory (fictional character), 154
household production, 141
House M.D., 154
HowManyAsMe website, 86
HTML, 71
Hume, David, 177, 204
humor, 31
Hussain, Zakir, 187
Hussein, Saddam, 122
identity, 120, 134, 136–37
incentives, 122, 123–24
Indian classical music, 187
individual, respect for the, 222–23
Inferno (Dante), 128
information, 50–51, 55
information technology, 213
infovores, 2–3, 7, 10, 45
in-group relations, 197–99
Innis, Harold, 65
instant messaging (IM), 66–71, 84
intelligence
animal intelligence, 224
and autism and autistic individuals, 18–19, 21, 27–28
and Google, 54
and multitasking, 52–53
non-human, 223–28
interiority, 117, 223, 226–28
internet. See web
introversion, 26, 31
intuition, 156
iPhones
and aesthetic values, 192
and autistics, 213
and communication formats, 71
and self-assembled bits of culture, 59
iPods, 4–5, 58, 81, 84
Iran, 122
Iraq War, 122
“Is Google making Us Stupid?” (Carr), 54
iTunes, 4, 5, 43
Jaiku, 74
James, Jamie, 182
Japan, 74, 207, 218–19
Jefferson, Thomas, 25, 166, 200
Johnson, Samuel, 25, 166
Jordan, Rita R., 195
Joyce, James, 166
Kant, Immanuel, 203–4
Keillor, Frank, 103
Kendall, Joshua, 29
Kidmondo, 9
Kindle, 43, 62
Klein, Naomi, 198
Knecht, Joseph (fictional character), 160–66
Krugman, Paul, 111–12
Lamoureux, Hugo, 190
late-talking children, 26
Laurie, Hugh, 154
least-common-denominator effect, 134
libraries, 43
Lil’Grams, 9
LinkedIn, 83
literature, 139, 146, 147–48, 170–71. See also Holmes, Sherlock
LiveJournal discussion group, 35
Living to Tell the Tale (Márquez), 120
local processing or perception, 18, 19, 36
Locke, John, 177, 204
The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien), 127
loss aversion, 196
lunch, duration of, 43
Mackenzie, Henry, 168
macroeconomics, 138
magazines, 44
manipulation, 139–41
Mankiw, Greg, 111–12, 114
mantras, 95
The Man Who Made Lists (Kendall), 29
Marginal Revolution blog, 1
market economy, 201
Márquez, Gabriel García, 120
marriage, 217–18
Marx, Karl, 216
mathematics, 19, 24, 153
Maxim, 44
McLuhan, Marshall, 65–66
media coverage, 34, 135–36
meditation, 94–95, 96
meetways.com, 131
Mehrling, Perry, 96–97
Melville, Herman, 166
memory, 18, 130, 195
Mendel, Gregor, 25, 166
mental ordering. See ordering of information
metaphysics, 203–5
Michelangelo, 166
micro-blogging services, 74–78
Microsoft Network (MSN), 47
Midnight Economist, 49
migrants, 106
“The Mind as a Consuming Organ” (Schelling), 117–19, 138–39
mindfulness, 95, 100
minorities, 212
mobility, 216–17
monotonizing existence, 141–42
Monty Python’s Holy Grail, 137
morality, 206
Moriarty, James (fictional character), 153
mosttraveledpeople.com, 105
movies, 114, 134
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 57–58, 166
multitasking, 51–53, 56–57
music
access to, 43
and amusia, 179–80
atonal music, 182–86, 187, 188
and autistics, 18, 26, 180–81, 187–91
duration of, 42, 44
live music, 114
music industry, 4–6
order in, 186
pitch perception, 18, 180
and self-assembled bits of culture, 57–58
serialist music, 188
and social validation, 84
subscription services, 6
Musicophilia (Sacks), 179
MyLifeBits, 97–98
My Mile Marker, 12
MySpace, 46
Napkin Fiction, 44
Napster, 6
narrative psychology, 126
National Association of Blind Lawyers, 25
nationalism, 197–99
Nausea (Sartre), 142
Nazeer, Kamran, 12
nerds, 22–23, 110–11
neurodiversity
and aesthetic values, 189
and atonal music, 182, 184, 185
historical figures with, 166–67
importance of, 125
and politics, 198
relation to autism, 22
and respect for the individual, 223
and support groups, 23–24
understanding of, 211
See also autism and autistic individuals
neurodiversity.com, 35
neuroeconomics, 125, 202
neurology
and aesthetic values, 174, 175–79, 184–92
and Dalai Lama, 95–96
and Kant, 205
and politics, 201
and respect for the individual, 222
neuroplasticity, 96
New Age religions, 101–2
Newmark, Craig, 24
Newton, Isaac, 25, 166
The New Yorker, 44
The New York Review of Books, 44
The New York Times, 34, 56, 104
New Zealand, 207
Nordic counties, 207
Nordon, Pierre, 160
novelty, 141–42
Nozick, Robert, 142–45
Nudge (Thaler and Sunstein), 124
Obama, Barack, 87
objectivity of autistics, 194–95
obsession, 103
Odadeo, 9
Oe, Hikari, 181–82
Oe, Kenzaburo, 181
“Of the Standard of Taste” (Hume), 177
optical illusions, 18
ordering of information, 2–14
and autistics, 2–3, 10–14, 20, 24, 36, 57, 140–41, 213
and Buddhism, 91, 92, 94, 96, 99–100, 105
collecting as form of, 102
and education, 111
in fictional characters, 148–49
and importance of the medium, 67
and information overload, 55
and multitasking, 56–57
and music, 186
and recording daily life, 96–98
in social networking contexts, 6–9
and stories, 126–29, 140–41
and web, 4–9, 10–12, 13
Orwell, George, 166
Ostwald, Peter, 167
otaku culture, 218–19
Overcoming Bias website, 193–94
Page, Tim, 180–81
pain relief medication, 81
pain tolerance, 19
Paradiso (Dante), 128
parents of autistic children, 36
patience, 53, 54
patriotism, 197
pattern recognition, 18, 150, 189, 201
PDF documents, 71
peers, 87
perception
and aesthetic values, 177
effect on human behavior of, 121–23
perceptual abilities of autistics, 36, 148–49, 176, 189
perseverations, 31, 169
Pessoa, Fernando, 120, 141–42
phone, talking on, 31
photographs, 11
Pierrot Lunaire (Schoenberg), 183
pitch perception, 18, 180
placebo effect, 80–81, 115
Poe, Edgar Allan, 160
political connections, 87–88
politics, 193–209
and abstract reasoning, 199–203
and cosmopolitanism, 196–99, 201, 203
and endowment effect, 195–96, 199
and human cognition, 193
and objectivity, 194–95
and ordering, 203–6
and rule-governed behavior, 206–9
postmodernism, 45
Pownce, 74
Predictably Irrational (Ariely), 124
The Princess Bride, 127
print media, 43–44, 66, 201
production, 9
propaganda, 140
prosopagnosia, 25, 132
prosperity, 1, 228
psychology, 124
Psychology Today, 174–75
quests, 126–28
Quine, Willard Van Orman, 166
Rae, John, 168
Raffman, Diana, 185
Rain Man (film), 15
Rangaswami, J. P., 78
Raven’s Progressive Matrices IQ test, 27–28
reading, 19, 48, 54, 62, 139
real estate bubbles, 138
reality, 122–23, 204–5
recording daily life, 96–98
Reid, Donna, 73
Reid, Fraser, 73
religions, 84, 101–2, 197–98
Renaissance, 58
repetitive tasks and routines, 31, 215–16
Rhapsody, 6
Roget, John, 29
Roget, Peter Mark, 29
Roget’s Thesaurus (Roget), 29
romance, 42, 60–62
routines, 135–36
RSS (Really Simple Syndication), 85–86
Rubin, Sue, 92–94, 190
rule-governed behavior, 206–9
Russell, Bertrand, 25, 166
Russia, 207–8
Sacks, Oliver, 179
sacrifice, 81
sampling of culture, 41, 44–48
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 142
Savage, Michael, 34
savants, 18
scarcity, 126
Schelling, Thomas C.
on focal points, 130, 131, 133
on human limitations, 138–39
and Nozick, 145
utilization of stories, 117–19, 126
Schoenberg, Arnold, 182, 183
science, 95–96
Secondbrain.com, 9
Second Life, 85, 212
The Secret (Byrne), 101
Seidel, Kathleen, 35
Seinfeld, 102
self-deception, 144
self-injury, 31
self-narratives, 136–37
self-similarity, 86–87
self-stimulation or “stimming” behaviors, 31, 168
Seneca, Jason, 33
SenseCam, 98
sense data, hierarchy of, 12–13
The Sensory Order (Hayek), 202
sensory perception of autistics, 19–20, 144, 184
serialist musics, 188
sex lives, 11–12
Shelton, Angela, 86
Shirky, Clay, 55
Silicon Valley, 213
Simone, Nina, 179
Sinclair, Jim, 32–33, 130
Skinner, B. F., 222
Smith, Adam
cognitive profile of, 167–71
on division of labor, 215–16
on framing effects, 81
and neuroeconomics, 202
psychological understanding of, 124
on social validation, 85
Smith, Vernon, 23, 39
Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life (Schroeder), 30
social hierarchies, 203
social networking, 7–9
social status, 177
social validation, 84–85
solar systems, 223
Sony Reader, 62
Soviet Union, 207
Sowell, Thomas, 26
speech, manner of, 31
Spielberg, Steven, 25
Stapledon, Olaf, 213
Star Maker (Stapledon), 213–14
Stephenson, Neil, 49
stereotypes of autism, 17, 20, 135 -36
Stewart, Dugald, 168, 169
Stoicism, 81, 124
stories, 117–46
and autistics, 129–30, 140–41
consumption of, 119–20
dual and conflicting functions of, 136 -39
economics of, 129
and the experience machine, 142–46
and focal points, 130–32, 133, 136
in literature, films, and television, 127–28
manipulative powers of, 139–40
oversimplification issue in, 133–36
quests, 126–28
role of, 129
salience in, 130, 133
and story-bound nature of life, 120–21
See also literature
String Quartet Number Two (Feldman), 44
Sunstein, Cass, 87, 124
Sway (Brafman and Brafman), 124
Swift, Jonathan, 25, 166
sympathy, 167, 169–70
Tantric Buddhism, 100–101
The Teaching Company, 112
technology, 45. See also specific technologies, including web
Technorati, 55
teenagers, 73
television, 114, 119
terrorists, 84
Tesla, Nikola, 25, 166
texting, 72–74
Thaler, Richard H., 124
theater, 114
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Smith), 81, 124, 167–68, 169
ThinkTank, 96
TiVo, 142
“Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” (Borges), 85
Tokyo, Japan, 218–19
Tolkien, J. R. R., 127
tone of voice, 31
Totspot, 8–9
Tourette’s syndrome, 168
Tower Records, 5
trade, 218
transportation, 216–17
travel, 104–5, 216–17
Turing, Alan, 25, 166, 167
Turkle, Sherry, 49
Twist, 77
Twitter, 7–8, 13, 74–78, 95
überbias, 83, 89
überdistortion, 79
ugliness of contemporary culture, 41, 59–60, 62, 63
United Kingdom, 207
United States, 207
The Universe in a Single Atom (Dalai Lama), 92
University Economics (Alchian and Allen), 49–50
University of San Diego, 109
U.S. Department of Education, 109
U.S. Marines, 107
value
in culture, 9
and framing effects, 79–81, 84–85
and interiority, 63
of stories, 129, 146
Veley, Charles, 104–5
verbal communication, 20, 35
violence in art, 175
Virtual Human Interaction Lab, 86
Wal-Mart, 4, 59
war, 196–97
Warhol, Andy, 166, 191
Watson, John H. (fictional character), 155, 156, 157–59
“weak central coherence” of autistics, 20
“weak executive function” of autistics, 20
The Wealth of Nations (Smith), 124, 167, 215
web
access to content, 47, 49–50, 62–63
and attention spans, 53–55
and autistics, 57, 132, 212, 213, 218
and cognitive performance, 52
currency of, 45–47
and education, 112, 113–14
groups and affiliations on, 87–89
and mental ordering, 4–9, 10–12, 13
and political connections, 87–88
popular websites, 46–47
rewiring effect of, 10
See also specific sites such as Facebook
Webern, Anton, 182
Wikipedia, 11, 47, 98–99
“Williams syndrome,” 179
Windows Live, 47
wine experiments, 79–80
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 166
workplace, 69
written communication, 213. See also print media
Yahoo!, 46
Yeats, William Butler, 166
Yemen, 217
YouTube, 10, 43, 46, 85
You’ve Got Mail, 128