Context, Consequence, Coincidence, and Cumulative Cultural Evolution: Linking Creativity and Culturo-Behavioral Phenomena Together Using Systems Principles and Processes of Selection by Consequences

TL;DR

This paper explores how creativity and cultural evolution are linked through systems principles and selection processes.

Contribution

It introduces an interdisciplinary approach to unify different theories of selection and cultural systems.

Findings

Dynamic patterns in physical and behavioral systems can be reconstructed using systemic interactions.

Processes of selection by consequences emerge from these systemic interactions.

The paper connects cultural evolution with behavioral and natural selection principles.

Abstract

The present article focuses on presentations from the second topical cluster from the 2024 Theory and Philosophy Conference held by the ABAI—Cultural Systems. The cultural systems cluster was comprised of two primary talks—“Unhinging Design from Darwinian and Skinnerian Selection” (Wasserman, 2024), and a second, co-authored by Sigrid Glenn and Maria Malott (and delivered by Sigrid Glenn), entitled “Behavior and Cumulative Cultural Evolution.” We will begin by briefly summarizing some of the main points of each talk, and then discussing some of the implications of the arguments developed in each. The approach taken to link these two seemingly different primary talks will be interdisciplinary. I will seek to illustrate how dynamic patterns of systemic interactions within systems of physical energy parallel the dynamic patterns of behavioral systems and enable us to “reconstruct” some of the main principles emphasized in the primary talks, while also seeking to develop an understanding of how various processes of selection by consequences (natural selection, operant selection, and selection of cultures) emerge from systemic interactions.

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