with genuine respect. But because he lacks one very basic
ability — the ability to mind-read — he can be presented with
that scene in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and come to a
conclusion that is socially completely and catastrophically
wrong. Peter, understandably, makes this kind of mistake often:
he has a condition that makes him permanently mind-blind. But
I can’t help but wonder if, under certain circumstances, the rest
of us could momentarily think like Peter as well. What if it
were possible for autism — for mind-blindness — to be a
temporary condition instead of a chronic one? Could that
explain why sometimes otherwise normal people come to
conclusions that are completely and catastrophically wrong?
5. Arguing with a Dog
In the movies and in detective shows on television, people fire
guns all the time. They shoot and shoot and run after people,
and sometimes they kill them, and when they do, they stand
over the body and smoke a cigarette and then go and have a
beer with their partner. To hear Hollywood tell it, shooting a
gun is a fairly common and straightforward act. The truth is,
though, that it isn’t. Most police officers — well over 90