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The pattern seekers : how autism drives human invention / Simon Baron-Cohen.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Basic Books, 2020Copyright date: ©2020Edition: First editionDescription: xi, 252 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781541647145
  • 1541647149
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Born pattern seekers -- The systemizing mechanism -- Five types of brains -- The mind of an inventor -- A revolution in the brain -- System-blindness: why monkeys don't skateboard -- The battle of the giants -- Sex in the valley -- Nurturing the inventors of the future -- Appendix 1: Take the SQ and the EQ to find out your brain type -- Appendix 2: Take the AQ to find out how many autistic traits you have. .
Summary: Simon Baron-Cohen reveals the surprising answer to two apparently distinct questions: Why are humans so inventive? And why does autism exist? The first question hangs over almost every human endeavor: business people want to know how to innovate. Cognitive psychologists want to understand the nature of creativity. Evolutionary scientists and comparative psychologists want to understand why we are capable of such cultural complexity and diversity, when other animals, at best, have learned how to use a rock as a simple tool. At the same time, the study of autism has become a preeminent concern among overlapping groups, from educators to scientists to business people and parents -- and of course to people with autism themselves. Baron-Cohen argues these two questions are actually the same: understanding autism -- specifically the fixation on patterns that is considered characteristic of the condition -- is the key to understanding both the ancient origins and the modern flowering of human creativity.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 152.1423 B265 Available 33111010438477
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A groundbreaking argument about the link between autism and ingenuity.
Why can humans alone invent? 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 a call to consider anew how society treats those who think differently.

"A 70,000-year history" --Cover.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-231) and index.

Born pattern seekers -- The systemizing mechanism -- Five types of brains -- The mind of an inventor -- A revolution in the brain -- System-blindness: why monkeys don't skateboard -- The battle of the giants -- Sex in the valley -- Nurturing the inventors of the future -- Appendix 1: Take the SQ and the EQ to find out your brain type -- Appendix 2: Take the AQ to find out how many autistic traits you have. .

Simon Baron-Cohen reveals the surprising answer to two apparently distinct questions: Why are humans so inventive? And why does autism exist? The first question hangs over almost every human endeavor: business people want to know how to innovate. Cognitive psychologists want to understand the nature of creativity. Evolutionary scientists and comparative psychologists want to understand why we are capable of such cultural complexity and diversity, when other animals, at best, have learned how to use a rock as a simple tool. At the same time, the study of autism has become a preeminent concern among overlapping groups, from educators to scientists to business people and parents -- and of course to people with autism themselves. Baron-Cohen argues these two questions are actually the same: understanding autism -- specifically the fixation on patterns that is considered characteristic of the condition -- is the key to understanding both the ancient origins and the modern flowering of human creativity.

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