[lox]

I don’t disagree that pop culture has distilled spectrum down into a magnitude, but that isn’t how the DSM describes it or how professionals diagnose it (or in my experience how they communicate it). The metaphor is supposed to be like the light spectrum not “less autism ranging to more autism”. Severity scale is distinct to interacting traits of social issues and restricted interests and repetitive behaviors (the spectrum bit).

[mindslight]

When I said single scalar, I was referencing the light spectrum - it is literally just less energy ranging to more energy (per photon). We just experience it so vibrantly as different colors (etc) because the difference between specific energies are quite important at the level of our existence. So unless there is a single underlying factor whose magnitude causes all of the different distinct traits of autism, it's a poor analogy.

[ackfoobar]

Your comment would probably be less confusing for non-physicists if you said frequency instead of energy (I know, E=hf).

Two meanings of the word spectrum are used in this discussion, definition quoted from wiktionary:

1. "A range; a continuous, infinite, one-dimensional set, possibly bounded by extremes." "Specifically, a range of colours representing light (electromagnetic radiation) of contiguous frequencies"

2. A plot of energy against frequency, e.g. "[t]he pattern of absorption or emission of radiation produced by a substance", or the output of a Fourier transform.

You were talking about the former, BoiledCabbage the latter.

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I agree with you that the former makes a terrible analogy of autism; and to be honest I really don't see how the latter can be an analogy of autism.

[BoiledCabbage]

Two beams of light of equal intensity and different frequency contain equal energy not differing amounts of energy.

The actual difference in frequency is the composition of that energy.

If of course you compare a dimmer beam of light with a brighter one the dimmer one will have less energy.

So no less energy is due to lower intensity light, not due to different frequency. You can pretty trivially have 5 flashlights each with a different color of light and all with the same energy.