The CBC Radio show Quirks and Quarks shares an interesting theory:
If you find yourself pondering the marvel of aerodynamics when you fly on a plane, or if you concentrate on the structure of music as it plays, rather than simply listening, you may score high on measures of “systemization,” according to University of Cambridge neuroscientist Simon Baron-Cohen.
And if so this may reflect abilities that he thinks may have first evolved in humans between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago, when our human ancestors took a cognitive leap forward. This new capacity enabled them to analyze and understand patterns in the world that would, among other things, facilitate the invention of complex tools from bows to musical instruments. In Baron-Cohen’s new book, he argues that humans became “the scientific and technological masters of our planet” because of our brain’s “systemizing mechanism.”
Also, some individuals — particularly those with Autism Spectrum Disorder, are the “hyper-systemizers” of our world. He suggests this should cause us to re-evaluate the capacities and strengths of people with autism… “[F]or the longest time, autism has been really just characterized as a disability, which it is, but with a focus on all the things that autistic people find difficult, what they struggle with. But we know that autism is more than just a disability, that autistic people think differently. Sometimes they have strengths…
“The fact that we can now see a link between those strengths in autism and human invention may change the way we look at autistic people. We might want to see them for who they are, people who think differently and have contributed to human progress.”
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot