One theory was that autism really was increasing because of assortative mating: geeks like other geeks, so they get together and have children. In The Geek Syndrome, Silberman explored several potential explanations for the shift. For decades, the estimated prevalence was four or five in every 10,000. And it’s true that more people today have autism diagnoses than used to be the case. It’s also well established that autism is genetically inheritable, though not in any straightforward way. Is, or was there, an “epidemic of autism” in Silicon Valley? It’s widely known, as Silberman says, that autism spectrum traits are “not exactly under-represented” among computer geeks. “So I approached the subject from an unusual angle.”

His husband, Keith Karraker, a high-school chemistry teacher, has more spectrum traits than he does. I’m kind of an extrovert, very social, very chatty.” But he’s always been drawn, he says, to “loners, programmers, science geeks, maths geeks”. “When people ask if I’m on the spectrum, I sometimes say no, I’m hyper-neurotypical.

Silberman doesn’t have autism in his family, either. Do I consider myself autistic? Do I have a child with autism? No, I answer to both questions, then fire the same ones back at him. “Before we start, can I ask you a couple of questions?” Silberman says when I Skype him at his home in San Francisco. “In the past 40 years,” Silberman writes, “some members of this tribe have migrated from the margins of society to the mainstream … The kids formerly ridiculed as nerds and brainiacs have become the architects of our future.” Autism-spectrum people are frequently seen to have an affinity for computing, and spectrum traits have been noticed in Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and so on. There’s nothing remotely surprising, as Silberman points out, about a Wired journalist writing about the neurodiversity movement. Silberman’s new book, Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently, tells the story of how this transformation happened – the research, the parents and therapists, and above all, the information networks that allowed everybody interested to share what they were finding out. But understanding and acceptance have since progressed in leaps and bounds. ” Silberman’s story on the topic, The Geek Syndrome, was published by Wired in 2001.īack then, it was not uncommon to hear autism spoken about in this way. Something terrible is happening to our children.

He was sitting in a cafe, telling a friend how he’d recently met two Silicon Valley power couples, each with a profoundly autistic child, when a teacher at the next table overheard and butted in: “There’s an epidemic of autism in Silicon Valley. F ifteen years ago, Steve Silberman was working as a journalist for Wired magazine in San Francisco, as the digital revolution was really taking off.

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