Heritability Of Autism Puns

Post-mending, I know that Sparks appear at random in sentient creatures. Is there any evidence that Sparks are heritable? i.e. are children of walkers more likely to be walkers? Are children of two walkers guaranteed to be walkers?

I know of various examples of walkers having 'normal' children with a non-walker - Teferi's daughter springs to mind. However granted the extreme rarity of Sparks, this doesn't necessarily rule out that those children still had a better chance of getting a Spark.

I do not know of any examples of walkers having walker children/parents.

I do not know of any examples of two walkers having children of either tendency.

Can you help me out? Failing definitive answers, any speculation-fueling evidence one way or the other?

Pluess, Michael, ed. Genetics of Psychological Well-Being. Oxford University Press, 2015.

• ISBN-13: 978-0199686674

• ISBN-10: 019968667X

• DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199686674.001.0001

• OCLC: 917215407

• URL

In his new book, Blueprint, behavioral geneticist Robert Plomin claim that you can use estimates of heritability as an indicator of equal opportunity and meritocracy within a society at a given point in time.

As everyone might not be familiar with the concept of heritability, some premises and context is needed (hope I don't miss something). Heritability does not simply equal "that which is passed down genetically". Rather, heritability is defined as the amount of variation in a phenotypic trait between individuals that can be attributed to inherited genetic differences between individuals. As such, when you reduce variation in genetics, environmental differences explain more of the variance (a good example is the trait of having two feet: this is a human universal and surely passed down genetically, but with almost no genetic variance due to its universality. Therefore, heritability is almost zero, and differences between people can be explained by environmental differences such as accidents). Similarly, when you reduce the variation in environmental conditions, heritability increases. For example, if there's large variations between those whose environmental circumstances allow them to get food on the table and those who can't, the heritability of height will decrease. If height no longer depend as much on whatever environment you happen to have been born in, but everyone is instead well fed, more of the variance can be explained by those who have a genetic propensity to grow tall. (This also means that a heritability estimate is specific to a specific population at a specific point in time. Change the circumstances and the estimate changes.)

Plomin suggest we can apply the same logic to things like educational attainment. Educational attainment shows substantial heritability (and is highly correlated with intelligence, also highly heritable), so removing environmental barriers would allow those with talent and interest to climb the socio-economic ladder and prosper in a society with equal opportunity and where there is selection for talent. And as he mentions, the heritability of educational attainment increased substantially in Norway during the post-war period where more and more people got access to education regardless of their circumstances. Current day Norway shows substantial heritability for educational

I wanted to share with this group some research I have done on the meaning of heritability metrics and how a number of people have misused them over the years. In relation to Sam, this is in the context of his discussion with Charles Murray, where this mistake was made widely and repeatedly.

The Murray Fallacy and the Heritability of Bias

I discuss in some detail the mathematics of heritability, it’s semantics, and how the misinterpretation of it causes mistaken assertions of futility in the face of ugly social constructs like bias.

I thought it important to share with this group in order to correct what are some very dangerous misunderstandings spread on Harris’ show to a community who are curious about the science.

I'm asking this for largely selfish reasons - my partner also has a pretty solid history of ASD in his family (not him but his father and grandfather).

We want kids, and we're planning to start the process of trying to get to a genetic counsellor, but we're contemplating whether it is responsible for us to even try to have children the biological way. I respect the right of all people to life, no matter where they are on the spectrum. But I would not handle it well if we produced someone who was nonverbal and could never be independent and we had to take care of them for the rest of our lives. I'm too emotionally frail for that (see: suspected ASD) and it wouldn't be fair to me, my partner or the kid.

So I'm terrified this means no bio kids for us...which has been making me really sad.

I know, I know, the logical answer is "just go see a genetic counsellor," and we will.

I guess I wanted to know if anyone is the product of ASD on two sides of the family? Or if anyone has good info on heritability of ASD (My reading basically comes up with: it's murky and poorly understood.)