Autistics’ preference for invariant knowledge and their rejection of change led the author to hypothesize that the ability to preserve known schemes is a necessary but insufficient element for developing the human capacity to solve problems, uncover new truths, and re-create the world. This proposition can be falsified by examining two derivatives. The first one is that autistics’ ability to pass recognition tests arises from an undivided attention and intention that value the truths one recognizes and reject what contradicts that information—similar to the deterministic stance of classical computational logic. The second derivative is that autistics fail false-belief tests because they lack the divided attention and intention that value simultaneously what one knows and what contradicts that knowledge—which is analogous to the ambiguity that surrounds quantum phenomena. Research on autism may lead to an understanding of the interplay of deterministic and quantum information processing in the act of creation.

autism, deterministic information processing, quantum information processing, creativity