Book World: The autistic traits of human innovation
Lucinda Robb
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By Simon Baron-Cohen
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Sometimes you really want to like a book. The attraction starts with a well-designed cover that catches your eye (in this case, one reminiscent of Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman or virtually any Malcolm Gladwell book) and the tease of a groundbreaking idea. Add the promise of a silver lining for a disadvantaged group, and it should be a feel-good read.
Unfortunately, The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention by Cambridge University professor Simon Baron-Cohen never really lives up to its thought-provoking title. Despite the best of intentions, it too often feels half-baked, like a pastiche of ideas from other books.
How Autism and Invention Are Connected
Our unique ability to analyze patterns is at the root of a psychological disability and the talent that drives human development Illustration: Jon Krause Dec. 12, 2020 12:01 am ET
On the face of it, we shouldn’t expect any link between a neurological disability and one of the crowning talents of our species. But new research is revealing a surprising connection between autism and the uniquely human capacity for invention.
As the archaeological record shows, our ancestors started inventing things 70,000 to 100,000 years ago. This was when humans evolved the capacity to seek patterns particularly to spot and experiment with the basic cause-and-effect relationship of