Neurodiversity: a video that beautifully illustrates the concept

There is a really interesting symposium now available by webcast from MIT's Media Lab. Though the name, "Human 2.0" is sort of irritating to me, some of the content is fascinating, including a talk by Oliver Sacks, some introductory remarks by John Hockenberry, and presentations of interesting work by Media Lab researchers.

I am still making my way through the day-long proceedings, but as I watched some of the morning session today, one speaker mentioned a video by Amanda Baggs--who was in the audience--that I went and watched on YouTube. I found it to be both a lovely work of art and a striking political statement. I hope you'll watch it. The videomaker (whose blog is here) introduces her work on YouTube this way:

The first part is in my "native language," and then the second part provides a translation, or at least an explanation. This is not a look-at-the-autie gawking freakshow as much as it is a statement about what gets considered thought, intelligence, personhood, language, and communication, and what does not.