Words from Others on this Topic

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

George Santayana, 1906, from the book The Life of Reason: Reason in Common Sense

All of this confirms something that I’ve long suspected: Most humans, until very recently, desired and maintained cultural stability, not change. Change was a threat and was embraced only when absolutely necessary.

Stephen E. Nash, 21 Sep 2018, from the article “How Do We Know Which Historical Accounts Are True?”

Once we become attuned to it, the entire pageant of human history, starting approximately 100,000 years ago, can be seen as evolution at high speed, made possible by the transmission of learned information across generations. Our departure from Africa and colonization of the rest of the planet; our ability to inhabit all climatic zones and dozens of ecological niches as hunter-gatherers; our ability to grow food as farmers; the advent of writing, and the exploitation of fossil fuels were all made possible by the generational transfer of information.

David Sloan Wilson, 2019, from the book This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution

Relevant Reference Models

The Ancestor Instinct

• An element of The Tribal Instincts