How Does Culture Evolve?

A Framework for Understanding Creative Cognition, Cultural Innovation, and the Evolution of Human Thought

Author: Liane Gabora, University of British Columbia

CrossTemporal NLP Seminar, Heidelberg University

Amir Safari

CONTENTS

Introduction

The Three Central Questions

What is Culture? What is Evolution?

Two Levels of Organization – The Worldview

The First Cognitive Transition – Representational Redescription

The Second Cognitive Transition – Contextual Focus

Testing with Computational Models – EVOC

Comparing Cognitive Mechanisms

Balancing Creativity and Continuity

Social Regulation & Emergence of Creative Class – FIGURE 8

Leadership and Broadcasting – FIGURE

The Woodcutting Metaphor & Honing

Concept Combination & Quantum Cognition

Honing Theory – Four Core Tenets

Darwinian vs Non-Darwinian Cultural Evolution

RAF Networks – The Formal Framework

RAFs Applied – Oldowan to Acheulian Transition

The Creative Class & Society-Level Dynamics

Connection to Temporality in NLP

Key Takeaways

Final Thoughts & Frontier

References & Resources

The Three Central Questions

Claude Levi-Strauss

Question 1

How did the capacity for creative culture evolve?

• Origins

• Key concepts: Representational redescription, Contextual focus

Question 2

What fuels cultural innovation?

• Mechanism

• Key concepts: Honing theory, Creative processes

Question 3

How does human culture evolve?

• Process

• Key concepts: SOR, RAF networks

What is Culture? What is Evolution?

Culture

• Definition: Extrasomatic adaptations socially transmitted

• Examples: Behaviors, artifacts, art, technology, music, poetry

• Key feature: Learned, not genetic

Evolution

• Definition: Descent with modification

• Three properties:

• Cumulative: builds on earlier forms

• Adaptive: increasingly beneficial

• Open-ended: unpredictable outcomes

Two Levels of Organization – The Worldview

Functions of Worldview

• Track and learn from environment

• Detect inconsistencies

• Reframe knowledge

• Reflect and revise

The worldview is the engine of creativity and cultural change

The First Cognitive Transition – Representational Redescription

Timeline

• 1.76 million years ago: "Homo erectus" to "Homo habilis"

Representational Redescription

• Definition: Ability to voluntarily retrieve and modify memories independent of environment

• Result: Chaining of ideas → multi-step sequences → open-ended innovation

• "Neuron C bridges fire (visibility) and need-for-light (visibility) → TORCH idea"

The Second Cognitive Transition – Contextual Focus

Timeline

• 100,000–30,000 years ago: "Middle Upper Paleolithic"

• Behavioral & Cognitive Modernity

• Archaeological artifacts: Complex tools, Representational art, Symbolic ornaments, Burial rituals, Evidence of religion & language

Key Outcome

• Result : Metaphor, analogy, cross-domain innovation, refined expression

• Genetic basis note: Possibly FOXP2 mutation (Paleolithic era)

Testing with Computational Models – EVOC

EVOC (EVOlution of Culture) agent-based model

• EVOC (EVOlution of Culture) agent-based model

• Setup: 2D grid of agents, neural networks, action repertoires

• Mechanism: Each agent: invent (modify action) OR imitate (copy neighbor)

• Fitness function evaluates effectiveness. Agents learn and transmit.

Key Findings

• "Chaining + CF produces open-ended, adaptive cultural evolution"

Figure 2. Results obtained using EVOC, a computational model of cultural evolution. In ‘open

ended’ runs, agents could generate fitter, increasingly complex and outputs, whereas in ‘closed

ended,’ once the maximally fit output was obtained, no further improvement was possible. (a) The

top graph shows how the fitness of cultural outputs increases over time. (b) The bottom graph shows

how the diversity of cultural outputs first increases as the space of possible variants is explored, and

then decreases, as the artificial society converges on the fittest cultural outputs

Comparing Cognitive Mechanisms

Mean fitness over time

X-axis: Iterations (0–200, with marker at iteration 50)

Y-axis: Mean fitness

Four lines:

Chaining + CF (highest, steepest rise, visible jump at iteration 50)

Chaining only (second highest)

CF only (moderate)

Neither (lowest, plateaus)

Diversity over time

Chaining + CF: highest diversity retained

Shows all conditions: rise, then plateau/decline

Similar four-line structure

Y-axis: Diversity (number of different actions)

X-axis: Iterations

Balancing Creativity and Continuity

Fitness vs ratio (shows peak around 1:1)

Too much invention → chaos; too much imitation → stagnation

Diversity vs ratio

"Optimal cultural evolution at ~1:1 invention-to-imitation ratio"

3D fitness landscape: C vs p tradeoff

3D surface plot showing fitness peaks

Contour plot showing the "ridge" of optimal performance

Social Regulation & Emergence of Creative Class

"Societies don't need to design this split"

"It emerges naturally from feedback loops"

"Successful ideas → creators get more freedom"

"Failed ideas → conformers take over"

Leadership and Broadcasting

Centralized leadership → homogeneity, fast convergence, low diversity

Distributed leadership → heterogeneity, slower convergence, higher diversity

Implication: Multiple leaders preserve cultural diversity better

The Woodcutting Metaphor & Honing

Conceptual interpretation

Analogy:

Woodcutting = your underlying creative idea

Light angles = perspectives you view it from

Shadows = sketches, prototypes, versions you produce

Honing process = iteratively adjusting light angle

Figure 9. Photograph of ambiguous wood-cuttings taken from the front cover of (Hofstadter, 1979).

The top `trip-let’ (as the author refers to them) is not simply a rotated version of the one below it; it is

a different shape. (Used with permission.)

Concept Combination & Quantum Cognition

Concept examples

• Concept :

• BEANBAG + CHAIR = BEANBAG CHAIR

• FIRE + LIGHT = TORCH

• GUPPY (fish + pet, logic violation)

Paradox:

"Guppy is not a typical FISH"

"Guppy is not a typical PET"

"Guppy IS a typical PET FISH"

Classical logic breaks!

Quantum cognition framework

•Quantum effects applicable to concepts:

Observer effect: Context changes the concept

Entanglement: Two concepts can't be described independently

Interference: Wave-like interactions between concept states

Ground state: Concept with no context (infinite potentiality, no fixed properties)

Collapsed state: Concept in a particular context (specific properties salient)

Creative insight: Putting a concept in unexpected context

KITCHEN_ISLAND (violates "surrounded by water" for ISLAND)

GINGERBREAD_HOUSE (activates "edible" for HOUSE)

Honing Theory – Four Core Tenets

Core Tenets

Indirect experience through multiple perspectives

"We don't experience a concept directly"

"We see it as it appears from different angles"

"Creativity = generating multiple 'shadows' (sketches, versions)"

One evolving construct, not multiple ideas

Change is in diversity of perspectives, not number of ideas"

"Divergent → many angles → Convergent → similar angles"

"Feels like many ideas → one, but always refining one"

Creative restructuring transforms worldview

Creativity isn't just output; it's cognitive change"

"Creator sees world differently after"

"Transformative, therapeutic, releases meaning"

This restructuring fuels cultural evolution

"Individual worldviews + external sharing + others internalize"

"Cumulative worldview refinement = cultural change"

"One mind's restructuring → new cultural forms"

Darwinian vs Non-Darwinian Cultural Evolution

Darwinian model

•Requires:

Variation (individuals differ)

Inheritance (traits → offspring)

Selection (differential survival)

Assumption: Clean inheritance through reproduction

Cultural reality (problem)

•❌ "Acquired traits ARE inherited" (Lamarckian in culture)

❌ "Novelty is guided, not random" (intentional innovation)

❌ "Cultural transmission ≠ genetic reproduction"

Conclusion: Darwinian model insufficient

Self-Other Reorganisation (SOR)

Process flow :

Result: "Cumulative cultural evolution through shared cognitive restructuring"

RAF Networks – The Formal Framework

RAF definition:

• Reflexively Autocatalytic Foodset-Generated networks

Origins: Kauffman's autocatalytic networks for origin of life

Generalization: Now applied to cognition and cultureorks

Key components:

Foodset (f1, f2): Information you have (innate, learned)

Foodset-derived (d1, d2, d3): Information you generate (new ideas)

Catalyst: Trigger (question, drive, stimulus)

Reaction: Transformation of foodset → new representation

Network: Self-maintaining, self-referential system

Two defining properties:

Reflexively autocatalytic: Each reaction catalyzed by network or foodset

F-generated: All reactants trace back to foodset

Panel (a): Stimulus triggers redescription cascade

Panel (b): Transformation of foodset item (arrow showing change)

Panel (c): New product/output

Labels: f1, f2 (foodset), d1, d2, d3 (derived), catalyst, reaction arrows

Why RAFs for culture?

"Trace how new ideas emerge from old"

"Model creative cognition formally"

"Predict conditions for innovation"

RAFs Applied – Oldowan to Acheulian Transition

Flow Diagram

Foodset (what was known)

STONE, STRIKE, SHARP_OBJECT

Source: Learned through observation/imitation

Catalyst (external trigger)

Environmental pressure OR curiosity

Question: "Can I make tools that do multiple things?"

Cognitive reaction (representational redescription)

Central process:

Combine: MULTIPLE_STEPS + PLANNED_ACTION + VISUALIZATION

Generate: EDGING, THINNING, SHAPING, SYMMETRY

Meta-concept: ACHEULIAN_TOOL

Output (foodset-derived)

New idea: The hand axe (revolutionary tool)

Requires: Hierarchical thought, multi-step sequencing

Signature: RAFs call this a "transient RAF" (exists only with catalyst)

The Creative Class & Society-Level Dynamics

Overview

Tier 1

Creative class \~10–20% of population

Social role: Often marginalized, sometimes celebrated

Function: Generate novelty, drive innovation

Behavior: Mostly invent (exploratory)

Tier 2

Conforming class \~80–90% of population

Social role: Maintain cultural coherence

Function: Propagate proven solutions, maintain continuity

Behavior: Mostly imitate (conservative)

~80–90% of population

Optimality principle

"Optimal balance → evolutionary fitness"

Summary

Insight 1

"Culture evolves through cognitive transitions."

Insight 2

"Creativity is structured honing, not random trial-and-error."

Insight 3

"Worldviews are self-organizing, integrated networks."

Insight 4

"Cultural evolution is non-Darwinian (SOR, not natural selection)."

Insight 5

"RAFs provide formal framework."

Insight 6

"Optimal societies balance creativity + continuity."

Insight 7

"Temporality, context, concepts are inseparable."

Time for Questions?

How to achieve a cultural conceptual restructuring LLM?

How to implement the CF in LLMs?

22. References & Resources

Key Papers by Gabora

• https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.02484

• https://scispace.com/pdf/an-autocatalytic-network-model-of-conceptual-change-4hc0wdduvt.pdf

• https://arxiv.org/pdf/1812.06590

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2406.15464

Related Quantum Cognition Papers

• https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0402207

images

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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/time-cultural-evolution-business-marc-gilenson/

gemini

Thank You