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The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention

The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention

by Simon Baron-Cohen

Basic Books ·2020 ·272 pages ·Science
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About This Book

In The Pattern Seekers, Cambridge University psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen makes a case that autism is as crucial to our creative and cultural history as the mastery of fire. Indeed, Baron-Cohen argues that autistic people have played a key role in human progress for seventy thousand years, from the first tools to the digital revolution. How? Because the same genes that cause autism enable the pattern seeking that is essential to our species's inventiveness. However, these abilities exact a great cost on autistic people, including social and often medical challenges, so Baron-Cohen calls on us to support and celebrate autistic people in both their disabilities and their triumphs. Ultimately, The Pattern Seekers isn't just a new theory of human civilization, but asks people to consider anew how society treats those who think differently.


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Reviews

"Readers interested in accessible and innovative looks at the human mind, such as those of Yuval Noah Harari, will be fascinated."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Near the Top

"The great engine of our advancement as a species has been autistic behaviour ..."

Jay Elwes· The Spectator (UK) Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Although the author pleads for understanding, this is not a self-help book but rather an account of how systemizers drive human progress."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

"But the subtitle of the book is not how systemizing drives human invention, it's how autism drives human invention."

Christine Kenneally· The New York Times Read review ↗ Maybe Someday

"Too many ideas are underdeveloped or left hanging, and the whole if-and-then explanation seems shoehorned into examples that don't really work ..."

Lucinda Robb· The Washington Post Read review ↗ Maybe Someday

"Baron-Cohen has a habit of making assertions of fact that I'm not sure have reached that standard of evidence yet."

Tom Whipple· The Times (UK) Read review ↗ Maybe Someday

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