Autism is not literally what I meant, see another reply in a subthread; anyway, lacking a module for comprehending certain aspects of the human experience does not signal superior cognitive functions to me. Not even when the modules that are left are the ones commonly dubbed "rational". The lack of a skill is the lack of a skill. It is not an equal and opposite skill. A sufficiently rational person should be able to understand the gaps in their own picture of the world, and accept and work within the paradigm of a part of humanity that apparently can understand that part of the world better. If you're in the midst of a discussion on the critique of a work of art, coming and saying that you never could understand what this art balderdash is all about does not improve upon the discussion, it simply shifts it towards your mental abnormalities.
Autism is not literally what I meant
Then I suggest that perhaps you should have chosen some other term than "autists".
lacking a module [...] does not signal superior cognitive functions to me
Sure. But I didn't say "It appears that you think autistic people are not cognitively superior overall to the average person", and that's because that isn't what I meant.
The lack of a skill is the lack of a skill.
Awestruck as I am by your insight, I feel it necessary to point out that not all skills are the same, and that "not being ...
For example, what would be inappropriately off topic to post to LessWrong discussion about?
I couldn't find an answer in the FAQ. (Perhaps it'd be worth adding one.) The closest I could find was this:
However "rationality" can be interpreted broadly enough that rational discussion of anything would count, and my experience reading LW is compatible with this interpretation being applied by posters. Indeed my experience seems to suggest that practically everything is on topic; political discussion of certain sorts is frowned upon, but not due to being off topic. People often post about things far removed from the topics of interest. And some of these topics are very broad: it seems that a lot of material about self-improvement is acceptable, for instance.