Login
You're viewing the social.bund.de public feed.
  • Raphaël Pinson :kubernetes:raphink@hachyderm.io
    Jul 10, 2026, 11:33 AM

    When neurotypical people read someone's expression, it happens automatically: parallel processing, fast, effortless. Like a GPU rendering a scene.

    When an autistic brain does it, it runs a different process: observe, decode, match, select, output. Sequential, non-automatic, constructed from scratch.

    The result looks similar, but the cost doesn't.

    This is why masking is exhausting: not because autistic people are bad at social interaction, but because they're running a CPU process where everyone else has a GPU. Same output. Different architecture.

    🧵

    #autism #actuallyAutistc #neurodiversity @autistics

    Title card on dark navy background. Text reads: "Autism Awareness Series / Autism & the Neurotypical Brain / A different architecture, not a deficit / #2 — Social Processing / raphink.info/autism"
    Two white head silhouettes facing each other. The left (neurotypical) has blue parallel lines flowing directly to a smiley face, labeled "Fast. Effortless. Parallel." The right (autistic) shows an amber flowchart: Observe → Decode → Match → Output, labeled "Sequential. Non-automatic. Constructed." Large text reads: "Your brain reads expressions. Mine decodes them."
    A blue GPU chip with multiple parallel lines converging into a smiley face. Text reads: "Neurotypical Social Processing / Parallel. Automatic. Fast."
    An amber CPU chip with a sequential pipeline of five faces showing gradual expression from blank to smile, labeled: Observe → Decode → Match → Select → Output. Text reads: "Autistic Social Processing / Sequential. Non-automatic. Constructed."
    💬 1🔄 9⭐ 7

Replies

  • 💬 0🔄 1⭐ 2
  • Roknrolroknrol@beige.party
    Jul 10, 2026, 12:54 PM

    @raphink With a sample size of exactly one, I kind of get the feeling that neurotypicals aren't really that good at it to begin with.

    I think that they don't need to be because they're usually interacting with other neurotypicals, who are also bad at it.

    @autistics

    💬 1🔄 2⭐ 0
  • jesterchen42jesterchen@social.tchncs.de
    Jul 11, 2026, 7:09 AM

    @roknrol @raphink Make that a sample size of two. I got the feeling NTs are bad at it _and_ often simply ignore it, even if they somehow have the idea that someone of feeling bad.

    My suspicion: they don't know how to deal with other peoples bad feelings without getting bad feelings as well. So they don't.

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0