LONG BEACH, CALIF.: “My mind works like Google for images,” said Temple Grandin in her presentation for the TED conference in Long Beach last month. Grandin, a renowned veterinarian who became famous for her explanation of the experience of autism. Her life also was the subject of a recent HBO Film, about which she commented.
“There were a lot of kind of Asperger types and autism types working out there on the movie set, too,” she said. One of the things that really worries me is that, where are the younger version of those kids today? They’re not ending up in Silicon Valley where they belong.”
The crux of her talk at TED was about the value of various types of mind--word, image and pattern thinkers.
“The world is going to need all these different kinds of minds to work together,” she said.
When asked about a previous comment that without autistics, men would still be socializing by a fire in a cave.
“If you were to get rid of all of the autism genetics there’d be no more Silicon Valley and the energy crisis would not be solved,” she told an adoring audience.
(Image by Steve Jurvetson)
