AN OUTSIDER'S GUIDE TO HUMANS

An exploration of human nature from the perspective of a scientist with Asperger’s syndrome.

Pang, who holds a doctorate in bioinformatics, was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder when she was 8. At the mild end of the spectrum, individuals with Asperger’s have difficulty picking up social cues, but they are often intelligent and creative. Recounting her childhood and teen years, she describes how she was “immune from peer pressure” and eagerly observed the strange “ecosystem” of playground cliques and subcultures. Fascinated by science, she excelled at the university level and discovered that familiarity with natural phenomena gave her unique insights into human behavior, which she generously shares with readers. Though scientists generally don’t compare the brain to a computer anymore, Pang likes the idea. She points out that humans think in simplistic patterns, whereas a computer algorithm can draw conclusions from unstructured, complex data. “It’s time to admit that your computer thinks outside the box more readily than you do,” she writes. On the outside, humans interact with clumsy inefficiency; the proteins making up our body get it right. They know their role, respect their peers, and work as a team despite entirely individual capabilities. A dip into thermodynamics reveals that “everything you do in your life to create order…gets undone sooner or later, and you have to do it all over again.” Probability theory does not reveal the future but easily separates the inevitable from the unlikely. Readers will enjoy Pang’s parallels between scientific principles and social behavior, although her forays into mathematics are less successful in the absence of clear explanations of propositions such as Bayes’ theorem. Whether readers will draw practical advice is uncertain, but they will encounter a vivid picture of how an individual with Asperger’s views the world. As the author writes, “we need to understand, and embrace, our differences—our weirdness—to benefit from the kind of efficiency that biological creations enjoy by design.”

Ingenious pop psychology.