Autism and Robots EDIT: Gonna come in here and say that the response to the video has been so overwhelmingly positive that the first few days after publishing I sort of became a KZfaq customer service representative, checking and replying to comments for ~8-10 hours a day, just because so many people had their own experiences and feelings to share and I wanted to encourage that. Unfortunately I have to go back to actually making stuff so I'm not as active anymore, but I wholeheartedly expected this video to have a catastrophic like/dislike ratio and invite tons of toxicity from generally dismissive people, so seeing the overwhelmingly positive reaction and discussions made me feel so happy as a creator. Thank you so much

The Stages of Online Autism: 1. Mockery and distrust (the Reeeeeeee era) 2. Slow inclusion/assimilation (weaponized autism memes, there’s a mix of disdain and genuine amusement) 3. Full acceptance (listening to tens of hours of niche video essays)

I'll tell you why I clicked on this video: -Autism -Robots -I like your voice texture it relaxes me and feels very pleasant

This video is the equivalent to going off the rails, except it doesnt go off the rails in any normal way. The train, its 20 cars, and its entire crew and passengers just manifest in some random mountain range in the wilderness of Asia, only for it to crash and tumble down the entire way down the mountain and slam itself into the train station... ...and there was never any rails.

I thought this was gonna be a character study on how many robots in media are extremely autism coded

Autistic people getting ready to watch a nearly hour long video essay (I am Autistic):

I am both intrigued and confused before even starting the video

When I was a kid I remember I was pretty much convinced I was a robot, I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t like anyone else around so I came up with the most obvious conclusion. Someone had replaced me with a robot copy and now I was stuck like this for the rest of my life. Ever since then I’ve loved all robots in media as I find their lack of knowledge on human concepts like love and socialization very relatable. This was a great video Davey thank you!

AH yes, autism and robots. Enough said, sounds like me so I'm in

When I was a kid, I was called “Dictionary” or “Calculator” by my classmates. Hearing my own speech didn’t sound right, and watching my own movements didn’t feel right. I became deeply depressed from a young age. I got my right arm and shoulder tattooed with machinery in an attempt to appear less human on purpose. I’m an archivist now. My left arm is tattooed with flowers. I’m taking antidepressants. My friends describe me as passionate before all else. I lift weights, I sing, and sometimes I dance. Thanks for this video.

Fellow tism bro here to, say thank you. Hearing your very similar experiences reminds me i'm not alone in this dark forest.

I wish I had words beyond "me fr!!" but I don’t. This makes me feel so seen. Thank you for making this :)

As an autistic guy who’s currently in an internship to become therapist, that whole talk of wanting to sacrifice for others really hit home in a way I didn’t expect. Thank you.

I wonder about examples of robots “masking”. They tend not to and the examples that come to mind first are them like the robots actively deceiving to achieve a goal, which I feel like doesn’t actually count as masking. Maybe a robot that thinks they’re human but isn’t great at it. OH MY GOD, it’s Zane from ninjago

If I were to make this video, it would be autism and wizards. My way of coping with my disability has just been to escape into second worlds, whether it's through watching Lord of the Rings over and over again, doing little worldbuilding projects in my head that'll never be used for anything or playing video games. Never been good at coping with reality and it's left me a hair away from suicide for a good 7 years straight now, the diagnosis at 19 feeling more like a death sentence than anything else. I've tried the usual autism route of being a "creative", trying to make video games or fiddle around with my guitars, but it never really goes anywhere, I just don't have the skills or the energy to build them, nor do I have anything to say worth spending the time to say. There's plenty of overly positive stories of living with autism on the internet, whenever I hear something like this, trying to encourage me to not hang, it inspires more contempt at this point. Completely irrationally, I know your motivations are as pure as they come, but it just feels so hollow after 24 years of getting my shit kicked in and with the future looking more bleak with every passing day. Thanks for the video, I know you'll still be able to see this comment after it's deleted in 10-15 minutes, so I'll try not to be an ass, I really do appreciate the effort, just a bit pessimistic.

Much like how Pikachu was the secret 4th starter, there’s a secret 4th personality for small boys: medieval fantasy Great video Davey, saw the title knew I had to watch. Now that I’ve watched, gotta subscribe

I clicked on this video because I'm autistic and was all excited about Robots and as it turns out, it was really you telling me I've likely been having silent panic attacks at least once or twice a month for the past 4 years and I had no idea???? This is actually groundbreaking news for me, and GENUINELY thank you!

Being a fellow autistic myself, the fact that you are too isn’t something I’d really thought about but it does not surprise me at all. Anyways, This video contains multiple of the most relatable things I’ve heard from anybody on the platform so thanks for making it

As a fellow Neurodivergent individual, I also have a fascination with Robotics, I have an active hobby around making robots. But it wasn't easy getting here. Having mood fluctuations that can lead to really aggressive behavior tore me down during my early life. I was diagnosed with mental health disabilities around 1st to 3rd grade (US Education System). Every time noise disrupted my mood, it would be really disruptive. In fact, I was repeatedly harassed in Kindergarten, every time having the aggressive reactions. (It wasn't a fair punishment in the details.) This ended up me transferring elementary schools into a Behavioral Intervention program. Fast forward to High school, I managed to, with the assistance of medication, tame my behavior enough to transfer back to the High school I was supposed to go to, instead of one that supported the BI program. Now, I'm further developing my social and organizational skills in College through a program provided. After this program, I will continue my studies for becoming an Mechatronics engineer with a minor in Software Engineering specialization in AI Control Systems.

You're a gift to the World Davey. I'm glad you managed to escape all those close calls and can still provide us with great entertainment in the present. :D

So about the eye contact stuff, apparently when most neurotypical ppl say “eye contact”, they often arent being literal and just mean looking at the general face area. Gotta love it when assuming people mean what they say makes you the weirdo :)

"I'm not a guy that hides away their life because it is full of intrigue and complexity" Apologies, but once you can start counting near death experiences on double digits, this is no longer a valid point. xD Memes aside, to add another comment onto the pile of 'this helped me,' I'm watching this in the hospital as I deal with the consequences of going straight to university because everyone told me it would be so much better than school. It was not. But hearing, not only about similar experiences to mine in the broad strokes, but also that during a ramble about your hyperfixations and it sounding so similar to my own rambles... well, I think it made the message that much stronger. Not just the 'I know how it feels,' but seeing action that, in some way, proves it? I don't know how to describe it. Anyway, thank you.

"Who the fuck cares if my eyes aren't making direct soul-piercing contact with my teacher" this and the lines that followed basically summed up a major issue i had during my experience in the education system

Autist here and robot empathizer. I've always had a connection for them from transformers to armored core. I relate to them at most levels of humanization.

As a diagnosed autist (all be it high functioning) this is oddly accurate and strangely comforting. Great vid dude

My copilot was watching this video about 45 minutes ago while we where on approach and im currently watching this in the lounge and im 17 minutes in and its a pretty good way to spend my down time I like this video man, well done, as always

I saw the title and as a autistic human myself I immediately was excited by the anxiety. Or wait is that anticipation. Honestly, just gotta say that for content creators this particular kind of 'tism is absolutely in style. I love the brand of comedy so much, only listened to intro so far. Will be sure to comment when I finish it

17:54 Helldivers 2 is a great representation of an "Evil AI" because they're not evil they just want to reclaim their home, "Cyberstan".

OH BOY ITS 4 AM

Autism and Robots: Leo Tolstoy's lesser known sequel to "War and Peace"

Sincerely, thank you for making this video. Being autistic myself, it hits very close. I'm thinking about a lot right now and can't fully put it into words, might come back later but probably not.

as an autistic non binary person, yeah I relate to robots quite a bit. no attachment to gender, the ability to realise that someone is sad by facial recognition but not having a clue what to do about it because its completely different for literally everyone, the monotone voice (although that changes when I'm excited, nervous, or saying a pre-planned response), keeping somewhat information files on people, categorising what I see like a robot, I've actually made it into a sort of game where I'll take in information and process it like I think a robot would to get through stressful situations calmly, and making a game on making my actions as efficient as possible, like my walkspeed and routing to places in school for example. they are just like me fr and the extreme determination if robots have that, like not letting anything get in the way of an objective

*"THE WORK CUBE"* yeah that reminds me that I put a little office space into my new cottage in FFXIV. The "I need to put something here" also reminds me of that house.

High-Functioning Autistic, here. Personally speaking, I've pushed myself to embrace my 'natural robotiness', maintaining a high level of near-constant mental and physical analysis and control. I keep tabs on everything going through my head, and have developed a level of self-awareness to the point that nothing is 'absent-minded' anymore. I don't like letting myself 'autopilot' because it often leads me into dark thoughts that result in my questioning my own sanity. Always monitoring and controlling is exhausting, but I'm happier that way. It also means I'm fully aware of how quirky I am, all the time... But forcing normal behavior comes off exactly as that. Forced. People can tell when someone is hiding something, even if they can't fathom a guess as to what. By allowing myself to just be 'me' - and all the eccentricities that come with that - the vibe people get from me is overall much more genuine. Or so I have been told. That's a win in my book. Also, I've definitely lived out the story of the robot character that you laid out here. Super relatable!

I crave the certainty and strength of the blessed Coelacanth

I'm supposed to go take a shower, but this video idea sounds perfect.

Just finished my quarter for college and I’m verrrrryyyyyyyy burnt out. I’m taking a break, gonna rest, gonna heal, and hopefully get that autism diagnosis finally :). I love the video, the pep talk at the end was very helpful for me. Also damn, I didn’t know panic attacks counted when you aren’t panicking, that explains a lot of stressful nights sitting in bed. Thank you!

Davey: “I’m autistic” Me: “looking back on some videos, I don’t know how I’m surprised by this.” I think only the mind of an autistic person could come up with the idea to make a video on Bloons War Criminals. And hell, more power to ya! Your videos are all fantastic. Thank you for being you.

As someone on the spectrum just coming out of highschool and having absolutely no idea what I'm meant to do. This genuinely made me so happy. I live in the south and the general response to my problems is either A: "your disabled and won't ever achieve my dreams" or B: "it's not that hard just be normal". It's so incredibly refreshing to see someone with the same challenges and how they succeeded. If you told me a year ago that the pokemon war crime guy is going to make me cry and understand myself, I probably wouldn't have believed you. Thank you Davey, you have much of my respect.

My first thoughts going into this video was 'Hmm, is he going to talk about how Autists were the ones that pioneered the robotic revolution?" But then you made that connect the dots comment and my anxiety shot through the roof. I was the total opposite. Still am to a degree. I'm freaked the fuck out of the idea of robots when they try to act human-like but fail at doing it (iRobot gave me proper nightmares to the point where I had to curl up beneath my dad's bed without him knowing just to be able to sleep at night. Those human-like faces, the red glow and the way they just fucked with Will Smith's character made me want to go "Nope" but I was too anxious to be 'his son' and so I kept watching until the end even though thinking about those robots to this day still gives me insane levels of anxiety.) I definitely relate to the idea that I'm "too quiet and different than everyone else" (honestly trying to resist telling my entire life's story after revealing that fact about myself and my opinion on robots since it seems that I've found people that 'get me' in some way, so I'll just leave this here and come back when I've found some more energy to watch your vid.

Seeing other autistic people around, doing alright, sharing some of the same experiences I've felt and felt isolated by- it's always good to see. Especially some of the stuff about always wanting to help others. Still learning how to not get completely swamped by the empathy myself, trying to find something between shutting it down or else being totally overwhelmed by it, but that whole segment just felt closer to some of my experiences than I've seen anyone else share. It's just so good to see that we're not in this entirely alone.

I saw this was recommended to me and I couldn’t ignore it. Being diagnosed myself a few years ago, I feel like you’ve said pretty much everything I’d say to other people. Especially the plushies. I still have a plush bunny I love to bits after years. Hell, with not wishing to leave my safety bubble is painfully true for me. And same with high school. I’ve absolutely hated my years of high school and I think I still do look forward to my next few years of it with dread. Autism is a hell of a thing and I didn’t even know I had it until like, 13. With robotics too? I genuinely have such an interest in electronics and metal working (and military stuff but shhh), and I agree that I’d probably be better and happier in a job like in a factory rather than being in education. Thank you, Davey. It’s nice to know that I’m not alone in this weird ass world.

Clicked the video because it has robots in it. No regrets, this video is right up my alley and is genuinely real. Always had this thought on how a robot navigate through the world, would they masquerade themselves as human? Maybe change and adapt their mechanical bodies to outfit the ability to eat or drink. Just to be "normal" around humans. I like the idea of a robot pretending to sleep knowing damn well that their bodies do not tire and simply stare up to think. Afraid that if they power down, they'll have to be waken up and risk revealing their true identity. Or a run-away worker drone that has developed close enough of an awareness to leave their workplace but having to struggle on developing both its awareness and conciousness. Or, or hear me out. A robot joining the fucking MILITARY! Neat right? But damn, I love robots and this video.

As an autistic person i just want you to know that I fucking love your channel. And I love it even more after evry video i watch and its because of a lot of different reason and videos like these are one of them. Also another Thing while i dont really know what being happy or sad is like I can say that your videos always makes me "feel" better. Idk if that makes sense but yeah. Also just wanted to add something about having a panic attack out of nowhere. So far in my life ive had 2 one was when i was home and had nothing going on and no reason for having a panic attack what so ever. The second was cause of a placement issue at a resturaunt when i was with my family at a vacation.

as an autism myself, the fact that your videos aren’t “WOAHHH!!! I DID THIS!! EXAGGERATED MOVEMENT!!!!!!” and only sprinkle that in when needed makes your videos genuinely fun to watch. thanks dave.

I, an Autistic woman, was always into dinosaurs, robots, and vehicles as a kid. Everyone was shocked by how much I knew about cars and boats! And especially that it's a girl talking about them. I still am into vehicles and always ramble about the stuff I'm into xD

FINALLY SOMEONE WHO KNOWS SONDER MY FAVOURITE WORD I LOVE YOU FOR THIS THANK YOU

I love how many folks see the connection in the comments. Was diagnosed barely few years ago (thankfully before adulthood) and it helped me realise why those things felt like that. Also that way I found the voidpunk identities and myself

Channels that just talk about whatever the heck they want are the absolute best channels. I’m Autistic and have loved robots since I was a kid, way more of a fan of weird flesh creatures but I love equally strange machine beings. Great way to examine alien thinking processes and perspectives, I think that empathetic aspect is what makes robots such important devices for storytelling.

As one of those Transgenders™ I think I could share my experiences of how my autism intersects with my thoughts on gender. You mention autism leading to people not understanding societal norms, and that was such a huge part of my experience with gender. I always had a disdain for the pointless and seemingly arbitrary rules society had built around gender. There are signs that there is a statistically significant overlap between being trans and being autistic, and I genuinely think this is only caused due to autistic people being more likely to figure out that they are than neuro-typical people. But that's an aside. And all of this does tie nicely into robots! Speaking on the transformer clip, yeah. That wasn't done in the best way, but that is a kid's show so I'll just shrug and move on. But queer people have been part of transformers for years now. In the lore, all the robots in that universe are created(or born) as male. Every girl transformer made the decision one day to be a woman, and that makes the connection extremely clear. I'm surprised they didn't make that one scene better when they had so much past info to pull on, but oh well. But with robots as a concept, gender gets even more fucky and cool. The idea of a being created for one specific purpose and finding ways to break out of that role and create their own identity. That resonates very well with trans people for very obvious reasons. And then there's the fact that robots aren't restricted by humanoid forms, and that is even more appealing to trans people. There is a big reason that furry communities and trans communities have so much overlap. The fantasy of having a body that can exist out of the human form is great, and robots have their role in that fantasy. Hell, it's literally called TRANS-humanism. Okay that's a joke, but still Anyway I really liked this video

I did a lot of robotic things to successfully socialize with others. I studied behaviors and mimicked facial expressions and vocal inflections that seemed appropriate. Eventually I started to see some success! And eventually I had a huge mental crisis because I couldn't tell if my feelings were real because "normal people" do all this naturally whereas I was somehow doing it wrong. I was always somehow doing it wrong, even if they didn't call me out for it. I wish I found this kind of content as a kid because once I found out I wasn't alone in my experiences, that alone brought intense relief.

Davey's editing text shows more emotion than his voice does, hell Davey's AI TTS sounds more lively We still love you tho

as a fellow robot obsessed autistic it's actually kinda cool how, the more i look into the proper care and preventative maintenance of tech, the fewer differences i see between a machine for example/fun fact: rest and sleep are not only as important for computers as they are for people, but for a lot of the same reasons, the shutdown, startup, and sleep sequences are when both computers and humans handle a lot of the more intensive mental maintenance tasks, such as cleaning up and reorganizing memory, purging tasks/processes that either froze or didn't close properly, and processing/applying larger updates for another example/fun fact: if you've ever seen a furby or other animatronic toy trying to function on low energy, it's a lot like how a human looks on critically low sleep, and i don't suspect it'll be any different for more complex robots/AI that are low on battery and/or are running out of available memory

I love the massive spoiler warning for a bunch of games and then you proceed to barely ever directly talk about any of their plots and just use clips of the games in unimportant parts for background footage. Honestly I have always appreciated your care for spoiling things, even if I'm not sure a warning is always needed. Great video as always!

As a person with autism, I read out the title of this video in my head with the voice of Soldier from TF2 17 times.

As an autistic person who's really into narrative writing, I made the connection a pretty long time ago that robots in media mirror a lot of my experiences with autism, whether intended by the writer or not. I think it was RWBY, of all things, that first opened my eyes to that, but that's beside the point. I always thought it was interesting how, perhaps subconsciously, many traits that people associate with robotic, non-human characters are also common traits of autistic people in real life, myself included. Not that I believe it was intentional ableism on the part of the writers or anything, but it says a lot about just how different we really are to neurotypical people. How differently we perceive the world, and moreover, how differently others can perceive us. But in that same respect, I find it really inspiring how the human and robot characters can still overcome their immense differences in the end, and treat each other as equals, as partners, and sometimes even as one in the same. It makes me aware that, despite the fact that I often feel so incompatible with neurotypical people, there is still an opportunity for me to be part of their lives. That there IS a place for me in this world that I wasn't built for. I've always felt not just sympathy, but a genuine camaraderie with many robot characters, even before I ever realized why. I made my silly little monitor-head robot avatar character because I feel more than comfortable representing myself as a robot, and I wear it with pride. This video of yours might be unhinged and all-over-the-place at times, but it's done a lot to reassure me that I'm not alone in my feelings, and I sincerely have to thank you for that. Robots are fuckin cool :)

I can really relate to wanting to make the world better. Not as in like... Ending world hunger, but if I can make things 1% better for a million people I'd love to. Unfortunately I work in IT, so my life is usually just telling people "No, you can't do that Jesus Christ do you have any idea how illegal/dangerous/stupid that is" and "Sorry, your computer's fucked". But sometimes I get to save the day for someone, and that's nice.

In case you wanted to know. I clicked on this video because I have Autism and I like Robots.

i don’t usually ever comment on videos, but i just wanted to say how thankful i am for this video. i don’t even have the words to describe how much i relate and feel seen, but i was genuinely in tears at various moments. especially with the about me section, and how everything you’ve ever wanted to do was always help people or better things for people in some way. (congrats with this video as you did just that!!) i’m the same way with what i want to do with music, and i hope that once i do begin, someone, somewhere out there, is helped or inspired by what i have to say and my experiences. and that bit at about 40:10 or so really hit me like a truck. that was genuinely amazing to hear and hit so close to home. i’ve always wanted to create or make art, and with my autism and adhd (and a few others lol), i’ve always been terrified of going out into the world and having to do something like work at an office, as i know for a fact i wouldn’t survive in an environment like that. i mean hell i could barely handle school my entire life and after switching to online schooling instead, it’s still incredibly difficult. i’ve always had everyone around me doubting my abilities and calling me a failure, and it was so nice, even in just a random youtube video i happened to click on, to actually be told to keep going. from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Dude, as a neurdivergent person, that whole part about wanting to be there fir people, even if it may be self-destructive, so Thanks for the reassuring video gun man face

I never realized how much I love bugs until I watched this video. One of my favourite games is rimworld and like 80% of my playthroughs are insect people with workers, soldiers, and queens

I was diagnosed as an adult, in 2022 with autism and it retroactively made my entire life make sense. I got falsely diagnosed with ADHD, Tourette's Syndrome, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It's made my whole life make sense as to why I am the way that I am, and this video helped in that. In a lot of ways finding out later in life that you were just autistic and not a robot or alien the whole time is a profound experience. This video really relates to me on a deep personal level, thank you 🔥

not autistic bt have always found robots fascinating. WHY DOES THIS ACTUALLY HIT HARD

Im absolutely suffering in college right now, and suffered through high school, and your talk around 22:37 genuinely made me feel a bit better, thank you

To be honest, I had no idea what I was going to experience clicking on this video. I think just seeing the title "Autism and Robots" is just so out there and bold that I was like, yeah I'll bite, I'm an Autism, I like robots. Titanfall, pretty good. Portal, great. Pondering over the ethical dilemmas of artificial sentience and their place in society and the exploration of their purpose... sounds like my cup of tea. So yeah, great video :) And to all of my neuro-spicy brethren out there that may stumble on this comment, you got this! p.s. I also started collecting plushies recently and it is way more important to me than It was previously in my life, I guess I learnt to express myself more with these things that I like as I've been around more neurodivergent friends and seen how they do life. I thought "yeah, why shouldn't I allow myself having these sensory toys, these are amazing." Thanks for listening to my Ted talk (my internal monologue really got out of and writing this, oops)

I have high functioning autism, I almost died 13 times, and yes robots are really cool. Since they are usually and unintentionally written like they have autistic traits. And although I have no problems communing and befriending with the other meat bags made mostly of water in my monotone way. It’s always nice to occasionally talk to or see someone who gets how weird they are. It just so happens we’re unintentional shown in probably the coolest way in media. D. A. V. E. From that one batman movie probably being my favorite robot character.

One of my favorite plot lines in recent memory was, oddly enough, on The Orville, the love plot between Dr Claire and Isaac, a sentient AI. Something about a robot being able to find love despite not being understood by so many spoke to me on a deep level as someone who’s autistic and currently engaged. I dunno what that really has to do with the video but thought it was worth noting. Regardless I really appreciate the video and would love more personal oriented stuff if you ever feel so inclined.

As someone autistic myself if there's two things I love, it's autism and robots. Haven't even watched the video yet, heard your into, like it. Now I'm going to come back to this in a couple of hours when my girlfriend is awake and force her to watch it with me lol

I think "mentally stunlocking yourself" is the most accurate way I've heard someone describe it, thank you for that

incredible video. Doesn't strike me as something you tediously scripted but something you just let yourself say and that is so beautifully human that it resonates more than anything else could. Ya brought me near to tears at the end. Thank you.

This November I got my autism diagnose. (46 years old and NOW I know why I'm as I am) One thing we talk about was "Eye contact" and how I handle it. By training and routines. Start of conversion - look the person in the eyes for no more than 3 seconds - Look away for 5 to 7 seconds - look back to the person I am talking to and keep eye contact for no more than 3 seconds. (repeat in till the conversion is over)

Hey, don’t stress it man. We watch your content because we love your content and the effort and ideas you bring. As long as you have people watching and supporting you, don’t fear! Just a few decades ago, getting a million eyes on you was reserved for only the most important men on the world. What does that say about people like you? edit: Fuck... This is painfully similar to everything I've experienced and gone through and never had a way of really putting or describing. I've just... never had the ability to get things done really well in school? I pretty much rely on crunch time to get anything done and my goodness I cannot even do things I want where I can't immediately see results...

IM THE AUTHOR OF THE WALLPAPER AT THE END!!! TYSM!!

I finally got to this video and it’s fantastic, incredible essay as a media analyst lover and autistic person. I always love your videos, and especially the ones that you take to new places!!!

Thx for this. :D I can really relate to that dark period of growing up and struggling with tism type things. This is a really good video

You know that school being the best years of your life thing was told to me as well so often. Those people telling me that can suck a fat one. Still depressed, don't get me wrong, but having the option to leave a job whenever I want instead of being locked with the same scumbags and not being able to change anything about that gets you.

I love listening to your long video essays, especially in the background. Your monotone is actually very calming

I have always enjoyed the idea of creating youtube videos or stories or art or etc., but I never really examined why. Until now. I very much resonate with how you put it in the 'About Me' chapter: Wanting to make more days slightly better. Working on something (Either in freetime or in occupation) that will improve someone's mood for a while is, in my opinion, one of the greatest personal things someone can strive for. Maybe that's one of the reasons I like and want to make video essays: I like learning about specific things. If I can brighten someone's day by making something that lets them learn about that thing, I don't think I could be happier Thank you for helping me realise this. You've definitely brightened my day :)

Bro if two of the things you're super interested in are bug swarms and robots you must be FEASTING with Helldivers 2

Often what is lumped into the autism connotation is things that would normally fall into some presentations of adhd and ocd

I'm in my first year of college and I feel the most burnt out I've ever been. I can't even take a temporary leave because my parents are threatening to take away my college fund money if I don't finish it despite me not even knowing what I want to do with my life. I just cannot wait to become self sufficient get out of this house finally get diagnosed and the help I need and discover what I want to do with my life.

Since you read every comment, i hope this makes you day a little better: I absolutely loved this video. I dont have autism, dont know anyone that does and, quite frankly, am not too interested in it. But i would listen to you talk about anything for an hour, you can make just about anything interesting. Every video you release is an automatic watch for me. Please keep up the good work and stay true to your nature!

this was one of the best videos ive seen in a while it was kinda nice to hearing another persons take on a very relatable life and idk why but that was the best pep talk ive had in years and the in-depth robot analogy just makes me like robots even more. your content is great and im always happy to see a new upload

As an entomologist let me tell you. We don’t have a single term for the cool spiky insect legs. If they’re adapted for grasping (as in a mantis) we call them raptorial. If they’re adapted for digging (like many scarabs) we cal them fossorial. If they’re just generally spiky I guess you’d call them spinose, but that just means spiky.

Now I'm waiting for Davey to do the simple solution to be able to talk about his own life experiences in his videos also known as committing war crimes

As a person who is only going to ever self diagnose because getting a proper one could screw with some stuff, seeing one of my favorite KZfaqrs has and does struggle with some of the same issues is incredibly reassuring. I'm incredibly lucky with the situation I'm in with college and so much else, but shit sucks sometimes, and it's really hard to explain why to most people. I relate a lot to everything here, but especially my career choices being centered around helping people, which has settled into environmental science, policy, and field work. Besides all that though, previously, I've always experienced this comparison as othering, partially because of the casual disregard that people would call me "robot" or other things just because I was good at math, but now that I've gotten older and have new perspective, I definitely see there's a lot more nuance to it, and this video really helped cement that. Just, all around, thank you.

Yeah this hits. Hard. I got diagnosed as autistic fairly recently and the amount of things it explains about me is somewhat hysterical. Part of me wants to pick out quotes from this video and do a full review but that would be a bit much I think. This is a fantastic video tho. The venn diagram you showed with "If you're not x you're y" just. Yeah. The fascination with hands- EXACTLY RIGHT?? THEYRE FUCKING WEIRD??? RIGHT?? My highest grades throughout primary and secondary school were in creative classes, specifically drama, and I was regularly commended for being able to act very naturalistically. I always just took the praise, but looking back it's obvious that I just. Did it all the time. Constantly. I consumed obsessive amounts of books as a child and studied how the people acted. I remember reading several books set in highschools and taking notes on how I should behave once I went there. There has always been a cut off once I am close friends with people, where I will no longer feel the need to Perform Conversation and simply go into rest-mode. I know this has freaked people out in the past and I know I've never been able to explain it properly, but... idk. Robots have off swiches. It fits the metaphor I guess. If I had to make the metaphor myself, tho, I have always related more to monsters. And aliens, but those are often just monsters/supernatural creatures in a different coat of paint. It's all the same, anyway, Inhuman creatures who are alive and bleeding and are entirely incomprehensible to the common man. Things to fear, or study, or maybe pity. I have over my whole life continuously come up with characters who are specifically inhuman, who treat themselves as such and are treated by others as such but who above all just. Are Human TM. They need connection and vulnerability and get lonely and maybe I'm just lonely. Maybe I just find the concept of a nest/den to be the most comfortable sounding thing in the world. I know I definitely want fangs. I love writing these characters, my current dream is to make a video game featuring a load of my freaky little dorks, but I know I also want to make the main character in that story human. Everything only works in contrast to other things and what's the point of an inhuman creature if there is no human to contrast it against? How else could I justify expositioning ludicrous amounts of useless worldbuilding? How else could I try and get across the idea of I am weird and cannot change that please be my friend anyway please? I miss being 11 and entirely not self aware where I would just wander off in the middle of playdates to go talk to myself in the backyard for 20 minutes before coming back like that was weird as hell. I remember watching Star Trek for the first time and pledging my life and soul to Data our lord and saviour. I should really watch a playthrough of neir automata. anyway. Good fucking video, hope the medical shit gets sorted out and you start makin some more bank. You deserve it, I hope your day/night is good man. Peace

Really do relate to this topic Hell, i am autistic AND a robotkin, so basically i completely get you Robots are cool

As an autistic person myself, I saw the mark of the 'tism branded upon your soul from the moment I saw the portal OSHA violations video. It's great seeing an amazing creator just chat about this openly, so I think I might do a bit of it myself. Thank you, not just for this video, but for sticking with all your other ones. Cheers.

My autism is so advanced no machine can ever hope to fully replicate it

What's truly reassuring that you've... got not too different of an experience to mine. Highschool wise, at least. I'm genuinely tired of highschool, it exhausts me to the bone marrow and deeper, many subjects being oftentimes challenging mainly due to my mind going from Florida to Siberia to RPA to Tennessee to Korea in just 10 seconds flat, but it's genuinely depressing recalling how good I've been going in primary school, only for it to crash and burn in fireworks of testicular torsion. But hearing you say that highschool was fucking pain but later on it got better... I can only hope my story can draw SOME parallels with yours, mainly having an upwards curve of life quality or smth like that. I've got Asperger's Syndrome so I don't think it's as severe as Autism, but I believe it may be quite similar to it, if anything. Prolly not gonna happen since I'm as paranoid as a Scaredy-Shroom with 40x40 area of fearing zombies, but I hope it's gonna calm.

So my Autism specifically has been set on Mythology, Godzilla, Superheroes/Powers in general

This is the first of your videos I've watched. I expected an essay on the similarities and differences between autistic people and robots, and how to properly represent both in media. I'm not disappointed about what I got instead: some vaguely connected insights, and someone describing experiences like mine in a way I've never heard before.

You're right, I didn't expect a pep talk in a video called Autism and Robots. But it was also weirdly exactly the video I needed one in. Showing that someone who has had similar experiences to me can make stuff work for them and that actually making a stupid (affectionate) video about the random super special interest you have is a good idea

I think it's fascinatingly telling how I just looked at the title and thumbnail and nodded to myself "yep." As if that pair is just some complimentary duo as fundamental to the universe as night and day.

Wait I fricking love this! I don't know what to say. This was an amazing video. Thank you for making it. Truly. I cannot express my appreciation.

I came to the channel because I watched you play Mechabellum with GiantGrantGames in his recent video, and you seem like a really fun person. I went in going "oh cool, this'll be a fun lil video essay about a video game! :D" ...I have now left with the feeling of an entire lifetime's worth of philosophical questions, new perspectives, and random shower thoughts being beamed directly into my head. It was the mental equivalent of asking for a free sample and being given a full 5 course meal. Thank you, good sir, this video was absolutely amazing

Awesome video. I struggle with autism but mainly ocd and this video is definitely relatable. The comparison with autism and robots really clicked for me personally, and while times can be tough, it is important to remember that no feeling is final. Looking forward to seeing whats next

I think the nightshade clip is a lil bit out of nowhere but throughout earthspark you do see nightshade struggling with their identity as they dont want to transform into a vehicle or anything mechanical. They feel different from the others in personality but the nonbinary aspect of them seems to be something they inherently knew about themselves and didnt really have to explore it. The human character was struggling with their identity and nightshade was trying to comfort them. Hope this gives some context and helps some understand the situation with the silly lil owl robot

This video resonates more with me than I'd like to admit. Not everything of cause but enough of it that I'll now spend the next couple days questioning myself.