Jay Elwes

The autistic mind could hold the key to the future

Simon Baron-Cohen explains how the autistic ability to systemise and see patterns is vital to coding and technological progress

Simon Baron-Cohen, the leading authority on autism. Credit: Alamy
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  • The Pattern Seekers: A New Theory of Human Invention

    Simon Baron-Cohen

    Allen Lane, pp. 256, £20

An old, cynical adage holds that ‘if all you’ve got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail’. I remembered that aphorism while reading the new book by Simon Baron-Cohen, one of the world’s leading authorities on autism, in which he unpicks the instincts and processes that have driven human progress.

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