Autism and Society

Autism is on the rise in all societies.  Since autism, in all its many forms, has a genetic basis; one would suppose that evolution would cull members of societies that demonstrate severe social dysfunction, the most obvious sign of autism.  Instead, the numbers of autistic individuals has grown.  The reason it has grown is; like most genetic-related psychic conditions, autism is directly related to the environment.  Societies have themselves evolved and their social evolution has been tending in a direction that actually favors severe social dysfunction.  Many of these tendencies are technological, the more obvious ones being the internet and television, which actively encourage social isolation.  In effect, societies have themselves become autistic. Since the autism condition exhibits inability to empathize with others because it lacks an ability to identify their emotional states, autistic societies similarly lack ability to identify the psychic states of other societies; thereby greatly increasing the likelihood of conflict.