A theory limited in scope and evidence

Abstract

What promised to be a refreshing addition to cumulative cultural evolution, by moving the focus from cultural transmission to technological innovation, falls flat through a lack of thoroughness, explanatory power, and data. A comprehensive theory of cumulative cultural change must carefully integrate all existing evidence in a cohesive multi-level account. We argue that the manuscript fails to do so convincingly.

Human cumulative culture and the exploitation of natural phenomena

“…Wide gamut colour screens, for instance, allow artists to use expanded colour spaces made of ‘greener’ greens, ‘redder’ reds, and so on to elicit stronger emotional responses than what was possible before [ 53 ]. Thus, while it has been argued that art results from cultural evolutionary processes that fall outside of the technological domain [ 61 ], improvements in artistic products of CCE often rely on improvements in material domains. More generally, most immaterial products of CCE only exist because of Type II CCE in material domains.…”