Evolution Of Everything : How New Ideas Emerge - The

Many great inventions, like the light bulb, were discovered by multiple people simultaneously because the necessary "recombinant" ideas were already in the air. If one inventor had died, the invention still would have emerged soon after. Key Areas of Cultural Evolution

Change is almost always gradual and inexorable. It "creeps rather than jumps," moving from one stage to the next as ideas recombine and certain versions prove more successful than others. The evolution of everything : how new ideas emerge

Order and complexity can arise without a central authority. Just as a flock of geese forms a "V" without a leader directing the shape, human institutions form through the interactions of millions. Many great inventions, like the light bulb, were

Ridley applies this evolutionary lens to several pillars of human civilization: Many great inventions