News

I'm a living being who does not want to associate with humans.

Autistic people are more likely to be Therian (identify as partly non-human and non-humanoid animal): Therianthropy: Wellbeing, Schizotypy, and Autism in Individuals Who Self-Identify as Non-Human, Clegg et al., Society & Animals 2019.

Looking at some brief descriptions of the terms (I'm only mildly aware of them) there is also the related group of Otherkin, who identify as not fully human, but do identify full with human-like sapience. The personal experiences of a 'Machinekin' (identifying as part sapient robot) are presented in _ Exploring Other-Than-Human Identity: Religious Experiences in the Life-Story of a Machinekin _, Shea, S.C, 2020, published in Religions. Neve discusses the relationship between autism and feeling othered in terms of gender and non-human Machinekin identity first hand.

Searching for autistic and otherkin, I find regular discussions in autistic spaces about how people believe their otherkin and autistic identities and experiences overlap. Much of this is in Autism / Neurodivergence discords, which can't be searched. However, these discords provide a managed group of fellow travellers with information that doesn't leak out to search engines. Nevertheless, some discussion about this is searchable. Here's one comment:

Alienkin. So much wrong planet syndrome. Hi, yes. Not alien, definitely relate to alienness though.

So much of my life spent asking "Why do neurotypicals do X thing?" only to later find out that they do it because it's done, it's their social identity. If their social identity mows the lawn, they mow the lawn. It doesn't matter that there's a cost of noise pollution and ecological destruction. They do it because their social identity does it. If their social identity revolved around jumping off of cliffs, they'd do that too. It's why there's so much "acceptable" ritual sacrifice, war, and other such horrific acts of atrocity throughout human history.

So I definitely relate to alienness. To do something "because it is done, the done thing" is the most utterly bizarre and strange concept to me. I understand to do something if it might be ethical, or kind, or clever, with an accompanying reason. But because "it is done?" It's bizarre.

Another discussion is titled "Does being autistic feel like being a robot who is trying to learn how to be human?" Top responses agree to this, giving various explanations of why it occurs, or how it feels, including:

I feel more like I'm missing a sense. It's like in every interaction in a group there is a second conversation only I can't hear that tells people when It's their turn to speak and elaborates on what the person means. I'm watching everything and analyzing everything to try to figure out what everyone else is getting that I'm not.

and

Yea kinda, or like an alien, who forgot his human handbook on scp147, if you have seen the show resident alien, I related a sadly large amount to the alien.

and

That’s why folks called me Dr. Spock growing up. I come from Vulcan, live long and prosper

There are questions about this on sites like Quora, with responses like "I've known since I was a kid that I had autism, so this might not relate to me. However, as a kid, I called myself an alien in this world. It's probably common when it comes to robots, but I was an alien to this world."

Is this the start of a furry fic