Jun 10, 2016 - Christophe Heintz, Olivier Morin, Michael O'Brien, and Dan Sperber for useful discussions. Thank you very much for your attention.
Mathieu Charbonneau
Science Studies Program Depts. of philosophy and of cognitive science Central European University, Budapest June 10th, 2016
Innovation
GENERATION 1
Innovation
cultural transmission
Behavior
cultural transmission
GENERATION 2
Behavior Innovation
Innovation
cultural transmission
cultural transmission GENERATION 3
Behavior Innovation
Modified behavior
Innovation
What is the key difference-maker between non-human, non-cumulative cultural traditions and human cumulative cultural traditions?
Cumulative culture We can understand cumulative culture as a process of cultural descent with modification. (1) Production of modifications (INNOVATION) There is a variation-generating mechanism that produces new traits by modifying existing traditions. (2) Inheritance of modifications (TRANSMISSION/INHERITANCE) It is not enough for modifications to be derived from of existing traits, they must also be transmitted from one generation to the next. Modifications that are not transmitted will not serve as a basis for cumulative cultural evolution. According to the ratchet metaphor, the key difference-maker between human cumulative culture and non-human non-cumulative culture is humans’ faithful transmission (high-fidelity cultural inheritance), not the capacity for innovation.
The disqualification of inventiveness The process of cumulative cultural evolution requires not only creative invention but also, and just as importantly, faithful social transmission […]. Perhaps surprisingly, for many animal species it is not the creative component, but rather the stabilizing ratchet component, that is the difficult feat. (Tomasello 1999, p. 39; emphasis added)
[Cumulative culture] obviously relies both on inventiveness, for the cultural novelties, and on faithful transmission across generations to keep the novelties in place until other novelties come along. The claim in [Tomasello et al. 1993] was that while inventiveness is fairly widespread among primates, humans transmit cultural items across generations much more faithfully, and it is this faithful transmission (the ratchet) that explains why human culture accumulates modifications over time in a way that chimpanzee and other animal cultures do not. (Tennie et al. 2009, p. 2405-6; emphasis added)
Types of innovation processes (1) Innovations from scratch Invented from direct experience with the environment but not a modified versions of a socially transmitted trait. Innovations from scratch are produced by individual learning and transmitted through social learning The zone of latent solution is delimited by the range of innovations from scratch.
A ratchet with only innovations from scratch
Types of innovation processes (2) Modifications Derived innovations, depends on a lineage relationship between the original, ancestral variant and its modified form. A modified or derived trait is one that retains some of the properties of its ancestor but also differs in other respects. For a tradition to undergo cumulative modifications, the transmitted trait must possess some structure that can be partially modified, and partly retain ancestral qualities.
A ratchet with a modification processes
Innovation from scratch
GENERATION 1
Innovation from scratch
cultural transmission
Behavior
cultural transmission
GENERATION 2
Behavior Modification
Modification
cultural transmission
cultural transmission GENERATION 3
Behavior Modification
Modified behavior
Modification
What is the key difference-maker between non-human, non-cumulative cultural traditions and human cumulative cultural traditions?
Manufacturing techniques as hierarchically-structured behaviors
Manufacturing techniques as hierarchically-structured behaviors
A typology of innovations Type of innovation (a) innovation from scratch (cultural seeding)
Formal rule [ø] [a, b, c]
action-level modifications (b) (c) (d) (e)
Addition Subtraction Alteration Replacement
[a, b] [a, b, c] [a, b, c] [b, c] [a, b, c] [a, b’, c] [a, b, c] [a, b, a]
hierarchy-level modifications (f) (g) (h) (i) (j)
addition of module subtraction of module Concatenation Recombination sub-goal change
[[a, b], [c, d]] [[a, b], [c, d], [e, f]] [[a, b], [c, d], [e, f]] [[a, b], [e, f]] [[a, b], [c, d]] [[a, [e, f]], [c, d]] [[a, b], [c, d]], [e, f] [[a, [e, f]], [c, d]] [[a, b], [c, d]] [[a’, b’]’’, [c, d]]
Theoretical “technospace” Set of all possible complex (structured) techniques. Each coordinate in the space represents a possible technique variant. Each vertex represents neighborhood (a one-action difference) between two techniques. : action-level modification
: hierarchy-level modification
Mapping functional constraints onto technospaces By a functional constraint, I mean the set of functional and dysfunctional techniques.
Continental landscape
Dysfunctional techniques are those that systematically fail in obtaining the functional goal for which they were set. Functional techniques are those that are capable of obtaining their goal, whatever their level of performance, efficiency, etc. Functional techniques Dysfunctional techniques
Insular landscape
Non-cumulative cultures Population A: - Hi-fi social transmission - Innovation from scratch Population A*: - No or low-fi social transmission - Innovation from scratch - Modification mechanism
Cumulative cultures Population B: - Hi-fi social transmission - Innovation from scratch - Action-level modification mechanism Population C: - Hi-fi social transmission - Innovation from scratch - Action-level modification mechanism - Hierarchy-level modification
Zone of latent solutions (innovation from scratch) Functional techniques Dysfunctional techniques action-level modification hierarchy-level modification
From Stout D (2011) Stone toolmaking and the evolution of human culture and cognition. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366:1050-1059
Oldowan ‘chopper’
Acheulean ‘handaxe’
Adapted from Moore (2007, p.14), see also Stout (2011)
Ratchet without a modification process
Ratchet with an action-based modification process in a continental landscape
Ratchet with an action-based modification process in an insular landscape
Fin! Thank you very much for your attention. Special thanks to Alberto Acerbi, Lee Altenberg, Andrew Buskell, Richard Byrne, Werner Callebaut, Christophe Heintz, Olivier Morin, Michael O’Brien, and Dan Sperber for useful discussions.
