In a recent TED.com talk by Misha Glenny, titled Hire the Hackers,Glenny noted at the end of his talk that many famous computer hackers have characteristics that are consistent with Asperger’s Syndrome. He mentioned he discussed this with Professor of Development Psychopathology at Cambridge, Simon Baron-Cohen, who “confirmed Gary McKinnon who is wanted by the United States for hacking into the Pentagon suffers from Asperger’s. Cohen explained that certain disabilities can manifest themselves in the hacking computer world as tremendous skills.”
This is not the first time that there has been mention of famous hackers having this disorder. Adrian Lamo, once hunted by the FBI, was institutionalized and diagnosed with Asperger’s. Cnet News recently reported, “Ryan Cleary, the 19-year-old charged in the U.K. on five counts of computer hacking activity, has Asperger’s syndrome.”
According to Wired.com, “There are no reliable figures on how many people have Asperger’s, but anecdotally a lot of them are drawn into the computer field, particularly the logic-heavy world of coding. BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen has diagnosed himself with the disorder, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates is frequently speculated to have it.” According to Businessweek, Bram Cohen’s disorder is, “a condition that keeps him rooted in the world of objects and patterns, puzzles and computers, but leaves him floating, disoriented, in the everyday swirl of human interactions.” In the movie The Social Network, some of the mannerisms that the Mark Zuckerberg character displayed may have implied he had Asperger’s as well.
Some other famous minds that have been noted as having Asperger’s include Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. The article, The Potential Genius of Asperger’s contains a long list of famous people who have been thought to have this disorder.
Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen developed an AQ test that measures the Autism Spectrum Quotient. “In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher. The test is not a means for making a diagnosis, however, and many who score above 32 and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger’s report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives.” To take the Asperger’s test, click here.
The following is Misha Glenny’s talk from TED:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gSwRHScq6M&w=560&h=315]Related Articles
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