Deep Origins of Innovation (Part II/III): Memes of Novelty

After having explored the mental processes around creation of novelty (Part I) as part of human’s adaptive behaviour to environmental change, in this second article about the deep origins of innovation we focus on the transfer of novelty by cultural replication. Applying Dawkins’ meme-concept for cultural replication in an analogy with biological replication, human’s mental processes in relation to observing his environment, and his subsequent actions, are the focus of our attention. Using a conceptual model of the complex reality of brains and behaviour—the Biological Information Processor (BIP)—mental processes of the existential brain and cognitive brain are identified. Next, the generic meme-concept is refined in procedural memes (P-memes) and factual memes (F-memes), the basic units of the cultural replication of procedural and factual experiences. In addition, we distinguish the I-meme for the cultural replication of ideas conceptualized in the cognitive brain, as well as the A-meme for the arts. Arts expressed in the physical form of artefacts, and the non-physical form of mental constructs.

This working paper is the second of three papers into the Deep Origin of Innovation. It is based on the case study ’Discovery of Innovation, Historic (R)evolutions in Perpective.’