What makes humans so innovative? In The Pattern Seekers, Simon Baron-Cohen makes a surprising claim: the genes for autism power human creativity. Drawing on case studies from how chimpanzees catch termites with grass, to how Thomas Edison worked, and even to how Kobe Bryant plays basketball and the piano, Baron-Cohen shows how an obsession with pattern-finding has driven society's greatest accomplishments. Unfortunately, pattern-seeking ability comes at a cost - sometimes at great cost, as heightened autistic traits displace the ability to empathize with others. In making his claim that autism is central to the human story, Baron-Cohen isn't asking us to tolerate difference or to celebrate neurodiversity, but that we pay autistic people the highest respect. The Pattern Seekers is a book for anyone concerned with how society treats those who are "abnormal" and a new chapter in how we think about human progress.
