We Are Copiers, Not Innovators

Intuition tells us that the number of innovators can be small, because in any given group, the rest of us can simply copy, steal or plagiarize their works. Our tendency to be copiers rather than innovators is why ideas and technologies accumulate gradually rather than in great leaps. It has taken around a billion years of genetic evolution to move from single cell organisms like yeast to the amost unimaginably complex, multi cellular organisms that we are. Small groups of hunter gatherers living in a single area simply do not produce enough new ideas to propel the cumulative cultural juggenaut most of the rest of our species.