I have just finished this book and am still processing it, so this is not going to be a very well thought out post.
I find it a very easy read. It is not highly technical but does cover a lot of ground. Simon's writing style is very much like his speaking style, soft and non confrontational. This is for a lay reader that might not know a lot about autism. Its main focus is on the concept of neurodiversity and its value. There is a lot of back matter and so there is only about 175 pages of text.
His basic thesis in founded in his research and in particular his empathizing/systematizing hypothesis, which states that empathy and systematizing are two independent features of human psychology. Autism has a tendency to appear on the systematizing or extreme systematizing side of the scale. He postulates that it is this systematizing bias that led to humans acquiring the ability to invent. You can take a test to see if you are on the empathizing or systematizing part of the scale if you are interested:
yourbraintype.com
He is really trying to put autism in an evolutionary framework as an important trait for human development, not only in terms of human evolution, but also in terms of the difference between us and the animal kingdom. He touches on many topics such as biographic stories of individuals, psychology, archeology, and neuroscience. A main theme is there was a radical change in psychology around 100,000 to 70,000 years ago that created a blooming on invention.
I think if you are new to Baron-Cohen's work, this will not add much. If you are new to it, it will be a very good introduction. If you are interested in an interesting hypothesis on the evolutionary and psychologic benefits autism bring to creativity or invention, this is an interesting book.
On a sad note, the acknowledgement section does mention his wife died while he was writing this.
Here is another link to a review:
Book Review: ‘The Pattern Seekers’ links human invention — past, present and future — to autism traits
15 Nov 2020, 12:58 am
