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Maybe someday
35
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
6/100Critics
4/100Scholars
94/100Author:
Simon Baron-Cohen
Publisher:
Basic Books
Date:
November 10, 2020
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.
What The Reviewers Say
Baron-Cohen is at his most striking when he writes about people with autism, like Jonah, who was slow to talk but who taught himself to read.
Despite the best of intentions, it too often feels half-baked, like a pastiche of ideas from other books.
...his certainty seems misplaced. It may indeed be that 70,000 years ago in Africa a naked ape evolved the ability to systemise and so conquered the world. Might it also be, though, that 70,000 years ago our ancestors also evolved grammatical language, meaning that at last the best inventors were able to pass their inventions on? It’s at least possible. Baron-Cohen has a habit of making assertions of fact that I’m not sure have reached that standard of evidence yet..
... he unpicks the instincts and processes that have driven human progress. His conclusion? The great engine of our advancement as a species has been autistic behaviour.
