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The Pattern Seekers
How Autism Drives Human Invention
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Excerpt
In dedication to autistic people
Sometimes it is the people no one
can imagine anything of who do
the things no one can imagine.
âALAN TURING
The Imitation Game
Chapter 1
Born Pattern Seekers
Al didnât talk until he was four years old. Even when he started talking, it was clear he was using language differently to most kids. His mind was different right from the startâhe was less interested in people and more focused on spotting patterns, and he wanted explanations for everything he saw. He asked people incessant âwhy?â questions, to understand how things worked. It was exhausting for his listeners. His unstoppable curiosity was at one level refreshing, yet his need for complete explanations was also often just too much for others. He was clearly a different kind of child.
He showed some other unusual characteristics too. For example, he would chant Thomas Grayâs âElegy Written in a Country Churchyardâ over and over (a habit that lasted his whole life). At school, his teachers became exasperated with his persistent questioning. One teacher, in frustration, described Alâs brain as âaddled,â meaning confused. But Alâs mind was anything but confused. Rather, his relentless questions were requests for greater clarity because he found other peopleâs explanations of how things work vague. He wanted to build up an orderly, evidence-based picture of the world. From his perspective, everyone elseâs way of thinking was sloppy and imprecise.
But his mother was worried. She could see that her son was frequently being reprimanded in class and put down by his teachers, and she worried this would damage his self-confidence. She needed to act decisively. So, when he was eleven, she decided to pull him out of school completely and to home-school him. This was not a decision she took lightly. But given his insatiable appetite for knowledge and the school viewing him so negatively, this seemed the right thing to do. Her child had a right to learn in the way that suited his different kind of mind.
Free of the constraints of a conventional school, Alâs mother watched with amazement as her son devoured books at home and at the local library. When Al read an account of how something worked, whether it was in chemistry or physics, he would rush down to the basement of the house to conduct his âexperiments,â to prove that the explanation was true. Free of school, he could finally pursue his passion for seeking patterns in the world, without a teacher telling him to sit still, stop asking questions, and do what he was told. Home-schooling was a liberating gift from mother to son. No longer imprisoned by group learning, Al could finally choose what, when, and how to learn, through individual learning. This suited his mind perfectly, because he was never content to be told by a teacher how something worked, but instead always wanted evidence to verify it for himself. He needed to question all evidence and test things out for himself. His was a mind that didnât follow the crowd. Instead, he wanted to understand things from first principles, to check that his knowledge was true.
Alâs mother could clearly see that her sonâs learning style was different. Some described it as pedantic, obsessive, rigid, precise, and exhaustive. For example, when it came to reading in the library, Al would start by reading the last book on the bottom shelf, then systematically read every book in the order they were on the shelves above, not randomly jumping around the bookshelves. He would follow an unbending rule: one book at a time, in a strict, linear sequence, so he could be sure he hadnât missed any information. Even though he was most interested in scientific and technical books, he would never deviate from his rule. And he loved rules, because rules were themselves patterns.
By the age of twelve, Al had read Newtonâs Principia, taught himself physics, questioned theories of electricity, and conducted his own experiments at home to see if they were right. By age fifteen, Al had become fascinated by Morse code, the ultimate language of patterns. And once he became interested in anything, he had to master it. He couldnât understand how most people would just dip into lots of topics superficially, since for him a topic had to be understood completely. It was all-or-nothing. He loved how in Morse code the same underlying message could be mapped onto patterns in a variety of ways, using auditory clicks, light flashes, or written symbols. He loved how each letter was a unique sequence of dots or dashes, how a dot was a unit of time, and how a dash was equal to three dots in duration. He loved how a letter was like a musical note, some worth one beat, others two or four beats. He grasped the patterns intuitivelyâhe was a born pattern seeker.
When Al was sixteen, he left home. He wandered the country and discovered that his Morse code skills could earn him money, working as a telegraph operator. But at night he would follow his deeper interests, staying up till the small hours, still performing his âmoonlight experimentsâ on whatever machinery he could lay his hands on. Just as when he was a child, he still loved taking things apart to see how they had been assembled, to see what controlled what. And then when he had done that, he was just as excited to reassemble them.
At age just sixteen, Al produced his first public invention. His âautomatic repeaterâ was a device that could transmit Morse code signals between unmanned telegraph stations, so that anyone could translate the code when it suited them. And as we shall see, he would go on inventing right through his adult life.
Two-year-old Jonah was another child who, like Al, was not yet talking. But unlike Alâs mother, who stayed calm, Jonahâs mother panicked. She was distraught that everyone elseâs kid was chattering away, so she took her little boy to a pediatric clinic to be assessed.1
She watched anxiously as the pediatrician did various tests. The doctor could see that Jonahâs mother was worried and thought it might help to show her a chart outlining how every childâs language development is different:2
âCan you see how toddlers vary in their rate of language development? Theyâre just different. And which track you end up on depends to some extent on your genes.â3
Still very upset, Jonahâs mother tried to focus on the chart but just couldnât understand it. She explained to the doctor that all the different lines just seemed confusing. She tried to hold back her tears. The doctor put her hand on the arm of Jonahâs mother to comfort her as she continued her explanation:
âYou see the solid black line? These are the average kids. And the top line are the early talkers, who are super-sociable, the chatty ones. The bottom line are the late-talkers, who are more spatial, more musical, more mathematicalâthey love patterns.â
Figure 1.1. Different types of childrenâs language development
The doctor turned to her, waited as if to gauge how much to say, and said:
âJonah is one of these kids. Theyâre just not that interested in chatting but are fascinated by how things work. These kids are not better or worse than those on the other tracks. Theyâre just different.â
The doctor again paused, and seeing that Jonahâs mother was now calming down, she said:
âI love these kids because they show originality. They may be late to talk, but when they start talking what they say is so much more interesting! Some of them end up as talented musicians or chess players, some are gifted in math, gardening, cooking, building bicycles, carpentry, or photography. They are perfectionists, who love detail. They spot things that other kids miss.â
Jonahâs mother was now leaning forward, paying attention to the chart, her tears gone. Then the doctor got out her pen and drew a big X.
âA lot of the kids I see in this clinic are just like Jonah, where the X is, and Iâve seen them grow up. Some end up as engineers or artists who show originality, successful businessmen or women with a new angle, or scientists who can see patterns in data and make discoveries.â4
She turned to Jonahâs mother:
âAnd you know what? I was one of these kids. Apparently, I didnât talk till I was three, and I grew into one of those kids who just loved science.â
The doctor smiled for a moment, and then looked Jonahâs mother straight in the eye:
âBe proud of Jonah. Heâs just on a different track. Believe me, heâll start talking when heâs ready. And if other parents ask why Jonahâs not talking yet, just say, âHeâs different, but not worse.ââ
Just before his third birthday, Jonah did finally start talking. But how he used language was unusual. When he spoke, he didnât look up at people to address them. Nor did he use his index finger to point at things, to share interest. Instead, he pointed at things to name them, for himself, even when he was alone. His mother realized that, unlike other kids, he wasnât pointing at things to communicate something about them to another person. Rather, he was pointing to classify objects, for himself. And as he pointed to each object, he named itâendlessly classifying. But she was reassured that at last he was finally talking!
But she noticed another difference in how Jonah used words: He wasnât naming things with general words, like âcarâ or âmushroom.â Rather, he named them with highly specific words, referring, for example, to the precise make, model, and year of a car (âThis is a black 2006 Renault Laguna 2.0Sâ), or the particular species of mushroom (âThis is a porcini mushroomâ).
Jonahâs mother was nevertheless very proud of how he spoke, because Jonahâs use of language revealed his very exact mind, his laser-sharp attention to detail, not unlike her ownâshe too would notice if the tiniest thing had been moved in the house and felt compelled to always put it back in its original position.5 It dawned on her that Jonahâs language reflected his strong drive to categorize, which was not unlike her husbandâs fascinations: he would sit for hours poring over books of photographs of different species of birds, or different types of cars. She knew that genes inherited from one or the other parent could cause a child to have blue or brown eyes, but could genes also cause a child to have a mind compelled to be precise and to classify?
She kept in mind the doctorâs words: Jonah wasnât worse than other kids, he was just different. She could see that other three-year-olds didnât do what he did. For example, Jonah would sit, rapt, in front of the television watching the weather forecast, to see what had changed in the graphs and the numbers since the last weather report. And still at just three years old, when he was in the hospital for a few days, she noticed he was reading the names of the different drugs on the trolley as the nurse wheeled it past his bed. When she mentioned it to the pediatrician, the doctor called this âhyperlexia,â the opposite of dyslexia. Jonah had taught himself to read, even before he had started school. How had this happened? All of her friends needed to sit for hours with their child, painstakingly trying to teach them to read, yet Jonah just took to reading like a duck to water.
One of her friends noticed that whenever she came over to the house, Jonah was always obsessively âexperimenting.â For example, he would spend hours turning just one light switch in the houseâthe one at the top of the stairsâto the down position, leaving all the other light switches in the up position, as though to confirm that the light switch at the top of the stairs controlled the light in the downstairs hallway. He would do this over and over and over again, as if to rerun the experiment, delighted as the light came on, flapping his hands and making a series of high-pitched squeals. When her friend narrowed her eyebrows presumably to say, Whatâs wrong with him?, Jonahâs mother leapt to her sonâs defense and said assertively, âJonahâs just different.â
By age four, Jonahâs interest had moved on to his large collection of toy cars. He would spin one wheel on one car, round and round and round, seemingly getting great pleasure in confirming it spun in exactly the same sequence every time. He would arrange his toy cars in patterns, lining them up in a strict order according to their color and size, and would have a tantrum if anyone rearranged them even slightly.
Jonahâs other favorite activity was sitting in front of the washing machine, listening for when it made the precise click or whirr he expected to hear as it went through each stage of the cycle. And when it reached a particular predictable point in the sequence, he would flap his hands excitedly. His mother ignored these odd behaviors, feeling they were harmless, and they seemed to make him happy.
But at school the teachers were becoming concerned because Jonah just wouldnât join in. During group reading, when all the kids sat together on the carpet, Jonah would sit with his eyes tight shut, his fingers in both ears. He hated sitting with other children, and he wouldnât look at their faces. The other kids started calling him âfinger earsâ and would chant it when he came into the classroom, upsetting him. He would run outside when he heard it, leaving his teacher Julia trying to persuade him to come back in. Julia worried about Jonah, and spoke to him gently, asking him how he was feeling. He said he felt anxious when other children moved because they were âunpredictable.â She was surprised at a five-year-old using such a grown-up word.
In the playground, Julia noticed that Jonah always tried to keep to himself. Despite the schoolâs best efforts, and even with her help, sometimes he was bullied. She was mortified to discover that on one occasion some kids had picked him up, put him into a dustbin, dumped rubbish on top of him, laughing as he screamed, and then closed the lid. He stayed in there, terrified to move or make a sound in case the bullies were still there, waiting for him to come out. He was in the bin for hours until, fortunately, he was discovered by the school caretaker at the end of the day.
Generally, Jonah preferred to be alone at the edge of the playground, collecting leaves, classifying them into precise categories. Julia, who had by this point decided she should take him under her wing, asked him one day what he was doing. Initially, he didnât answer. When she asked him again, he said, without looking up, in a monotonous voice:
âYesterday I sorted all the leaves into five different piles: these ones all have a stalk; these ones all have a single blade; these ones all have a smooth edge; these ones all have an elliptical shape; and these ones have a main vein with all the other veins coming off it. But today I realize thereâs a sixth way leaves can differ: these ones all have leaves that are opposite each other along the stem.â6
Julia was amazed. Sheâd never come across a child who was so logical, so different, so self-contained. She asked him why he wanted to find all the different ways to sort the leaves, and he answered simply:
âSo I know all the patterns.â
Julia felt she was in the presence of a child-scientist who needed no encouragement to conduct his observations but was motivated by pure curiosity to understand the world. When Jonahâs mother came to the school gates to collect him that day, Julia told her she should be proud of her sonâs remarkable mind.
But Jonahâs mother was increasingly anxious about his behavior. Other parents were starting to say Jonah was âobsessiveâ or âweird.â He was the only child in the class who wasnât invited to other childrenâs birthday parties. She would dread picking him up at the end of each school day, in case a teacher or a parent came over to her to report yet another incident. On one occasion, Jonah had reacted to another child chanting the âfinger-earsâ nickname by pushing him so forcefully that the child fell backwards and hit his head. On another occasion, she arrived to pick up Jonah and was called into the head teacherâs office. He had apparently picked up some scissors, walked over to a girl sitting at the same table, and cut her bangs because it bothered him that they werenât straight. The little girl was speechless with shock, and her parents were furious.
Jonahâs mother longed to have a child who played easily with other children and didnât come home with odd collections in his pockets, of snails, small rocks, or crumpled pieces of paper with his handwritten lists of carsâtheir make, model, number plate, color, year, and ownerâall systematically organized in a grid. And she worried about Jonah because he totally trusted other people.
One time, a child in the playground had asked if he could see Jonahâs wallet, and when Jonah agreed and handed it over, the other boy ran off with it. His mother despaired at how she would ever teach him all the different ways someone might trick him. He just didnât seem to understand other children. He said that social interactions were incomprehensible to him, unlike the world of objects or patterns, for which he had an intuitive understanding. So Jonah preferred to be solitary, learning not from others but by and for himself.
It seemed as if everyone completely missed why Jonah was doing what he was doing, endlessly sorting and classifying. One child psychiatrist to whom Jonahâs mother took him called his behavior RRBI, which he explained stood for ârepetitive and restrictive behavior and interests,â as if reifying it in this way somehow explained it. To Jonahâs mother, calling it RRBI was insulting: the label medicalized his behavior as a symptom of some disease. And she thought it was meaningless because it was totally circular: âJonah collects things because heâs got RRBI.â7
She decided not to go back to the child psychiatrist and instead to talk to the kind pediatrician, who she felt understood Jonah better. The pediatrician was delighted to see her again and told her that, if you watched Jonahâs repetitive behavior carefully, you could see that he was trying to discover the laws for how things work. Jonahâs mother felt this doctor was helping her to open her eyes, to see what motivated her son.
And then the pediatrician shocked her:
âI get so annoyed when I hear a psychiatrist calling a childâs repetitive behavior RRBI. He may as well say that all science, including medicine, is RRBI. Doesnât he realize that every scientific discovery and every invention that has ever been made over the centuries was discovered through repetition?â
The doctor shook her head.
âWhen Jonahâs doing his experiments, with the light switches, heâs like a little scientist, changing just one feature, while trying to hold all the other variables constant, to make discoveries. Heâs trying to understand the system.â8
Jonahâs mother sat in admiration of this doctor who was helping her to finally see her son as gifted.
As young children, Al and Jonah were remarkably similar. They both struggled to understand people, yet their minds were tuned to a hyper level to analyze and understand patterns and systems, questioning, experimenting with, and classifying everything they encountered. Both of these two children, despite being born in different centuries (Al was born in 1847, Jonah in 1988), questioned everything: âWhy did X happen? What happens when I do this? Is this an X or a Y? Whatâs the proof that A really causes B and that itâs not some other factor C?â With their critical minds, they were constantly analyzing and experimenting.
Both Al and Jonah looked at the world in a fresh way, uninfluenced by social convention, not feeling compelled to follow the consensus. And they both wanted explanations that were complete, without gaps. As his pediatrician had astutely observed, Jonah was like a little scientist, examining every assumption and testing the evidence for itâexcept that Jonah, like Al, was doing this without any formal training. All these two children seemed to care about was the search for âtruth,â which for them was simply a word for consistent patterns. Anything that did not fall into a pattern or follow a predictable rule or law was of no interest to them. They were born pattern seekers.
Despite their similar characteristics as children, their lives took very different trajectories. As an adult, Al became famous. He was Thomas Alva Edison, became a celebrated scientist and inventor with 1,093 US patents, and invented remarkable, transformative technologies, such as the lightbulb. He was affectionately nicknamed âthe Wizard of Menlo Parkâ by those who respected his different way of thinking.9
In contrast, Jonah today is a young man who still seeks patterns in the world around him. He didnât become a world-famous inventor, but in his own quiet way, he shows the same drive to understand, experiment, and invent. For example, as an adult, he is fascinated by patterns on the surface of the ocean. He drives to the coast every weekend to go fishing, and the local fishermen all know him. Since his teens, they have grown to love having him join them on their boat because, as he gazes at the surface of the sea, he reads the patterns of ripples on the water. The patterns tell him where thereâs a shoal of fish, how big it is, how deep beneath the surface it is, and even what kind of fish may be in the shoal. Often he says nothing and simply points. The fishermen have learned to trust him, and they throw their nets where he points. They still marvel at how easily Jonah spots patterns they miss. And they say his predictions are always right. The joy that Jonah experiences on these fishing expeditions is palpable, because he can become engrossed in the detailâthereâs no pressure to see the bigger pictureâand these trips also allow him to socialize without having to make conversation.
But even though Jonah has a talent for spotting patterns, remarkable attention to detail, and an extraordinary memory, he has struggled to make a single friend. When I pointed out that the fishermen were his friends, he bluntly corrected me.
âThey like me because I show them where the fish are, but after the fishing trips they go to the pub, and I go home alone, and still live with my parents.â
Jonah is autistic. But perhaps you already guessed that.
As these two childrenâs stories make plain, the very same behaviors and fascinations can be viewed very differently. Seen through one lens, a childâs âobsessionsâ are a symptom of a âdisorderâ or a âdiseaseâ and associated with disability. Seen through another lens, a childâs relentless experimenting and detailed observations are the product of a mind whose pattern-seeking engine operates in overdrive and can lead them to invent, and sometimes to become great inventors.
The capacity to invent is hugely important because once humans became capable of invention, we transformed our world, and we are still doing so today. And yet the capacity to invent is poorly understood. There doesnât seem to be a theory of how we invent, or an understanding of where this transformational ability comes from. 10 The conventional wisdom is that invention involves playing with or exploring an object, seeing it in a new light, or having an insight into it, but these are vague descriptors and donât amount to a theory. Yet when we look at the minds of inventors like Edison, or of autistic people like Jonah, we can glimpse a connection between them that needs exploring.
Glimpsing this connection has driven me to ask some fundamental questions: How do we invent? What goes on in the human mind when we invent? Are humans the only species that can invent? At what point in evolution did we or our ancestors start to invent? What is the intriguing link with autism? And does this link hold true across the autism spectrum, including even those who have learning disabilities or very little language?
As a psychologist and an autism researcher, I have studied the human mind for thirty-five years. In this book, I present a new theory of human invention. Here it is in a nutshell.
First, humans alone have a specific kind of engine in the brain. Itâs one that seeks out if-and-then patterns, the minimum definition of a system. I call this engine in the brain the Systemizing Mechanism. Second, the Systemizing Mechanism developed at a landmark moment in human evolution, between 70,000 to 100,000 years ago, when the first humans began to make complex tools in a way that no previous animal had ever been able to, or any non-human animal can do today.11 Third, the Systemizing Mechanism allowed humans alone to become the scientific and technological masters of our planet, eclipsing all other species.
Genre:
- Editors' ChoiceâThe New York Times Book Review
- One of the Best Science Books of 2020âAmazon.com
- A Barnes & Noble Best Psychology Book for 2020âBarnes & Noble
- "A thoughtful argument that creativity shares many of the same traits as autism.... Insightful."âKirkus
- "Baron-Cohen's work buttresses the case that aspects of autism can be positive, and that thoughtful guidance can channel some with that diagnosis into productive and meaningful work. Readers interested in accessible and innovative looks at the human mind, such as those of Yuval Noah Harari, will be fascinated."âPublishers Weekly
- "Based on massive research, Simon Baron-Cohen argues that most of us are specialized in how we perceive the world around us. There are those who focus on people and those who focus on things. The author makes a compelling case that the second kind of mind -- the pattern seeker -- is at the root of modern human civilization."âFrans de Waal, C. H. Candler Professor of Primate Behavior at Emory University and author of Mama'sLast Hug
- "In this ambitious and provocative book, Simon Baron-Cohen goes beyond the usual discussion of 'special gifts' in autism to propose that the diversity of human operating systems has accelerated the advancement of human civilization and culture in ways we can barely imagine."âSteve Silberman, author of NeuroTribes
-
"Simon Baron-Cohen has long been a champion of autistic people, and The Pattern Seekers -- a thought-provoking book -- makes a significant contribution to the emerging literature on neurodiversity."
âJohn Elder Robison, author of Look Me in the Eye - "It's rare to come across a surprising new idea that explains important phenomena, but Simon Baron-Cohen's exploration of abstract pattern-seeking in human affairs is one of them. This book sheds light on one of humanity's most distinctive traits, celebrates human cognitive diversity, and in contrast with its subject matter, is rich with empathy and psychological insight."â Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct
- "Always years ahead of others, always bolder in mind and in action than others, Simon Baron-Cohen now synthesizes a secret of human creativity born out of difference. Where others saw disability, he saw specialness. Like nature itself, the beauty of the human mind comes from its diversity."âAmi Klin, Bernie Marcus Distinguished Chair in Autism at EmoryUniversity
- "The Pattern Seekers is a game-changing book, a passport into exploring the world of innovation and creativity. Most importantly, it celebrates autistic people and is a call for action, to welcome neurodiversity."âDavid Joseph, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music UK
- "The Pattern Seekers is a book of big ideas and is sure to excite intense discussion and debate, fueled by Baron-Cohen's lively prose and provoking stories."âDaniel J. Povinelli, author of World Without Weight
- "Simon Baron-Cohen, an internationally acclaimed authority on human brains, has written a fascinating book that illuminates the 'spectrum' of thinking styles. After reading it, you'll better understand the personalities of your friends and colleagues!"âMartin Rees, author of On the Future
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"In an age of increasing specialization, The Pattern Seekers comes as a breath of fresh air. Simon Baron-Cohen is truly a rara avis, able to see hidden links between seemingly unrelated disorders that span the whole spectrum of human nature. He steers clear of simple-minded reductionism as well as touchy-feely psychology. The result is a book that is destined to become a classic. Baron-Cohen does not shy away from speculating on controversial topics like autism that everyone is interested in but no one understands. And although he is usually right on target, he will inevitably annoy a few pundits. But as Lord Reith of BBC put it, there are some people whom it is one's duty to annoy." — V.S. Ramachandran, author of The Tell-Tale Brain
- "Simon Baron-Cohen has written a wildly creative and fascinating book. He takes on one of the deepest puzzles in cognitive science by asking a simple question: What makes Homo sapiens so inventive? By combining brain science, evolutionary biology, and the study of autism, Baron-Cohen provides a unique theory of human cognition. It is surely one of the most powerful and eye-opening books about the human mind written this decade."âAndrew N. Meltzoff, co-author of The Scientist in the Crib
- "A fascinating account of the mechanisms underlying the related capacities of both autistic individuals and innovators."âBrian Josephson, Emeritus Professor of Physics at University of Cambridge and winner of the Nobel Prize in physics
- "Simon Baron-Cohen is one of the greatest thinkers and writers today on the subject of autism. In this erudite new book he explains that autistic people's strongly systematic way of thinking differently is one of the essential elements in the capacity for invention. Baron-Cohen explores how obsessively experimenting with patterns and sequences, whether in music, the visual arts, math, engineering, cooking, or observing the patterns of the ocean waves, led to new inventions and discoveries. He has recalibrated the lens through which autism is understood and redefined it as a rare potentiality, to be valued and celebrated. His bold new idea, that the genes for autism drove the evolution of human invention, places this disability center stage in the story of humans. If you have ever wondered why geniuses spend so much time alone in their sheds, this illuminating book starts to give us an answer to that question."âJools Holland, musician
- "[A] bold argument . . . an impassioned call to action for modern society to do a better job of tapping the inventive power of people with autism."âClaudia Wallis, Spectrum News
- On Sale
- Nov 10, 2020
- Page Count
- 272 pages
- Publisher
- Basic Books
- ISBN-13
- 9781541647145
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