The problem with The Algorithm is not just that it pushes us into a bubble, but that it doesn’t even let us see how small the bubble really is.
You’re implicitly contrasting The NT Noosphere against The ND Noosphere, but there is no “The” NT Noosphere, nor “The” ND Noosphere. In NT space, there are the people pushing Autism Speaks and ABA and trying to divide us into “Profoundly Autistic” and what I can only presume, from their statements and known biases, “Not really actually autistic LOL”.
But there are also the people who are building Sensory Safe Spaces, and helping us with Executive Dysfunction run things, and showing our bewildered newly diagnosed where to get help, and generally being menschen.
In the Neurodiverse space, there are those who are advocating and fighting for inclusion and understanding, and there are those who want to just lay down and give up, who think being autistic is nothing more than the Universe’s cruel joke, who hate themselves and by extension anyone like them, and there are those who see autists as the next stage of human evolution, who must take our place as the rightful rulers of the planet so we can remake it in our image. (I mean, there aren’t many autistic supremacists, but they exist.)
But the Algorithm will not only just show you the bubble it thinks you belong in, it is hiding how small it is, that there are all these other voices and opinions all tucked away in their own bubbles.
Napkin’s experience is valid and real. Your experience is valid and real. It’s just that the bubble won’t show you each others experience.
That’s why liminal places like BB must exist, so we can step outside our bubble, whether it’s comfortable or torturous, and meet each other and see how big the world is. That some people really have it harder, and to see that it’s not always that bad: there’s hope, and there’s a need for hope.
We’re all mutants here.
