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If language naturally evolves to serve the needs of tiny rodents with tiny rodent brains, then what's unique about language isn't the brilliant humans who invented it to communicate high-level abstract thoughts. What's unique about language is that the creatures who develop it are highly vulnerable to being eaten.

Temple Grandin

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Temple Grandin
Age: 77
Born: 1947
Born: August 29
Academic
Activist
Biologist
Non-Fiction Writer
Professor
Researcher
Screenwriter
Teacher
University Teacher
Writer
Zoologist
Boston
Massachusetts
Mary Temple Grandin
Brain
Tiny
Highly
High
Serve
Evolve
Language
Creatures
Naturally
Rodent
Humans
Unique
Abstract
Rodents
Needs
Level
Vulnerable
Evolves
Thoughts
Communicate
Eaten
Levels
Develop
Brains
Animal
Brilliant
Invented

More quotes by Temple Grandin

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Who do you think made the first stone spears? The Asperger guy. If you were to get rid of all the autism genetics, there would be no more Silicon Valley.
Temple Grandin
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I think that the definition of autism is too broad. You got to remember, autism definition is a behavioral profiling.
Temple Grandin
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One area of study that still needs to be done is the kind of autism where kids have speech and they lose it. Some parents say it's happened right after vaccines. That group needs to be studied separately from others.
Temple Grandin
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I'm seeing too many smart kind of socially awkward kids, a lot milder than I was, not getting employment because they're not learning job skills.
Temple Grandin
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The squeeze machine is not going to cure anybody, but it may help them relax and a relaxed person will usually have better behavior.
Temple Grandin
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Us visual thinkers like me, be good at things like industrial design, graphics, art, those kind of jobs.
Temple Grandin
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The world needs different kinds of minds to work together.
Temple Grandin
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Autism's a very big spectrum. At one end of the spectrum, Einstein would probably be labeled autistic, Steve Jobs, half of Silicon Valley, you know, Van Gogh. And at the other end of the spectrum, you got much more severe handicaps where they never learn to speak.
Temple Grandin
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here's certain things that are similar to cats and dogs. Dogs are just hyper social and they have a want to please you way more than a cat does.
Temple Grandin
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From a scientific standpoint, Aspergers and autism are one syndrome. Aspergers is part of the autism spectrum, not a separate disorder.
Temple Grandin
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When kids are really little, they all look the same. No speech, no social relatedness, cannot emphasize enough the importance of early educational intervention.
Temple Grandin
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But my favorite of Einstein's words on religion is Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind. I like this because both science and religion are needed to answer life's great questions.
Temple Grandin
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We found if you took the dog out for 45 minutes a day and worked with it that the solitary stress hormone, cortisol, went down. But then it went right back up again because they didn't keep doing it.
Temple Grandin
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I feel very strongly that if you got rid of all of the autistic genetics you're not going to have any scientists. There'd be no computer people. You'd lose a lot of artists and musicians. There'd be a horrible price to pay.
Temple Grandin
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I believe there is a reason such as autism, severe manic-depression, and schizophrenia remain in our gene pool even though there is much suffering as a result.
Temple Grandin
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One of the big areas I'd like to see a lot more research done on is the sensory problems, and it's real variable. One kid's got sound sensitivity another one can't tolerate fluorescent lights. I can't stand scratchy clothes.
Temple Grandin
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I was nonverbal until I was four years old. Back in the 50s, I was the kind of kid they used to just put away in an institution. But then you get the milder autism where there's no speech delay, but they're socially awkward. Those kids were around when I was a child. They were just called geeks and nerds.
Temple Grandin
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One of the things I want to do is be a decent role model. I've got a lot of emails and stuff from children. They look up to me. Kids get different labels and things like that and I want those kids to succeed.
Temple Grandin
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I would never talk just to be social. Now, to sit down with a bunch of engineers and talk about the latest concrete forming systems, that's really interesting. Talking with animal behaviorists or with someone who likes to sail, that's interesting. Information is interesting to me. But talking for the sake of talking, I find that quite boring.
Temple Grandin
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The most important thing people did for me was to expose me to new things.
Temple Grandin