Is autism the next stage in human evolution?

My third medium article considers something I've heard in various forms over the years: the idea that autism is some next stage of evolution for the human being. This is very relevant to my work; although I don't take the view that autism is the 'next stage' as such. This article deals with a tricky subject, especially because autism is so heterogeneous as a condition. The people who know the more disabled forms will probably have a knee jerk reaction against the concept; the individuals who are able to live normal or extremely successful lives might have the opposite.

This is the same sort of debate which rages between neurodiversity and anti-neurodiversity advocates. Until we properly understand the range of conditions on the autism spectrum, these debates are inevitable: when released, the DCIDE method will hopefully help this argument settle (although it may indeed raise new issues). You can access the article here.