38M Looking to match vibes and maybe make friends with a fellow misfit.

Specifically, I'm looking, yearning, to crawl into the brain cage of a brain that I find fascinating because it's been far too long. To that end, I'm going to be pretty specific about the sort of person I am and the sort of person I'm looking for. * I both don't want someone who's going to be a yes person, but also who isn't a huge downer. and someone who generally cogitates like I do. * I have to start out by, uh, unmasking the elephant in the room and saying that I'm absolutely not looking to talk to any conservatives. I believe... I must believe in the possibility for things to be better and that things are not zero-sum. * I also believe in what is in front of me, and reason. * also, no bigots or other such unsupportive or greedy "I've got mine" personalities. if pretending things are okay is exhausting you too, we're in the same boat. * I'm also so not interested in talking about religiosity or belief in the blind sense of things and if you come at me with astrology I might flip a table. * I am interested in talking to people who are possibly a little neurodivergent like myself. I likely have high functioning autism so I've got that intensity and stomping on all your eggshell trail of hints social hints that you may know and understand. I've also got a disability or two but you would probably never notice. * That also means that I am a fairly introverted person. A fairly independently and logically minded person. I'm not particularly interested in fulfilling other people's expectations unless I truly want to. I try to be pretty straightforward too, but I know how that usually goes over so it doesn't always happen. So I'm really trying to position this as "nobody's got anything to lose so why put up any barriers?" * I like a whole lot of things. I like science and aerospace and physics and neuroscience and history. I like programming, which is my profession, and technology. I like films and movies, books and graphic novels. I like video games on occasion. * I like active things too, like running and skiing. * I invest as a hobby, but don't do anything with crypto and I don't want to hear about it. Honestly, I do it mostly so I can secure myself a safety net before I don't really feel like dealing with nonsense anymore and live in the woods. * If you're in some sort of STEM field, I will be immensely interested, even though I am not terribly technical myself. I am trying to teach myself a little bit about machine learning and building some models myself this year as a resolution of sorts. I'd be very open to talking about relationships and society as well. How things are going, or not. * I'm particularly interested in the people who don't want a color in the lines. For example, I have no particular need on balance to have kids or get into a marriage or schedule stack my life with responsibilities as many people seem to need to.

Enough rambling from me. If you want to chat, send me a PM. Just greetings to start, y'know. But... Be cool, be kind, and we'll get along, and... maybe we'll both end up with another friend.