People who are not socially involved with others miss a lot more than the latest gossip. Through that interaction, we learn what to fear, what to avoid, such as speeding cars. Blastland’s son, Joe, is different ..

“His judgment is based not on human understanding but on past performance or, in other words, a sense of ritual or routine. Cars do what cars can do, though not for any particular reason. This is the critical point, cars are only their reputation, without present purpose no one is late, no one has relatives to visit, jobs to go to , places to see; rather, they hurtle around as large lumps of red, blue and white, just as such lumps have always hurtled around in Joe’s experience. Yes they have people in them, he knows that much, but the people, being machinelike too, follow the rules of all similar machines. Joe never expected a car to hit him – until one did – and he had no idea that being hit by one would hurt – until it did – and now he is afraid of them.”

This may be why people with Autism are so determined to maintain a routine and have few interests. If you can only know if something is tasty or poisonous if you ate it previously, best to stick with eating the same thing over and over.