Executive summary Modern scientific, technological, defence and intelligence capability depends disproportionately on cognitive variance associated with neurodivergence. Western societies historically extracted value from such cognition while marginalising contributors through medicalisation, exclusion and late recognition. Eastern societies followed an alternative path, integrating cognitive variance through role alignment and collective discipline, often without diagnostic recognition and at high personal cost. Neither model optimises resilience, wellbeing or long-term capability. Reframing neurodivergence as cognitive infrastructure enables stronger organisational performance, national resilience and competitive advantage. Abstract Modern scientific, technological and security capability rests upon sustained engagement with complexity, abstraction and anomaly detection. Evidence from history organisational practice and labour-market data demonstrates persistent reliance upo...