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Comment by olewhalehunter | Hacker News Reader

https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/study-ties...

"In the study population, advancing paternal age was associated with increased risk of some psychiatric disorders (eg, autism..."

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I remember a Stanford professor dived into this advanced age gamete suboptimality and stressed to everyone the compromises folks take in delaying past prime biological stages. He showed some time profiles of the diminishing chances for implantation, genetic disorders, etc. It was really palpable because you could sense he was a bit off balance having to present this sort of news to a bunch of young folks with the fountain of youth in their back pockets. The classmates were pretty much silent throughout the delivery. It got me to start thinking about biological optimum and I easily realized it was in the 20s as one would expect. All nighters were a piece of cake, probably to serve the care of an infant waking every 2 hours into the early hours of the night. Another piece of easily perceived evidence was the sheer force of the libido at that age and just how attractive women are in their peak. Lots of conspiring biology to contemplate teleologically.

I feel stuff like this needs to be taken into account more consciously. It probably wouldn't have changed the decisions I made but still..

Meg Jay writes more about the practical implications of potentially delaying common life goals in "The Defining Decade"

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13523061-the-defining-de...

Apparently this is due to autistics taking longer to find mates, rather than mutation damage.

Implying that older fathers are more likely to be undiagnosed autistics and thus pass on whatever genes contribute to autism?

Be wary of Autism Speaks: https://thecaffeinatedautistic.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/why-...

Their research is biased, and the entire organization follows a gay therapy model (which is to "teach" gay kids that their orientation is wrong).

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