On 05/08/2013 11:44 AM, Marcus G. Daniels wrote: > It depends what you mean by `lead'. I'd distinguish between influence > and innovate. I'd claim that culture does not innovate, it can only put > down a road and encourage people to take it, and thereby set the stage > for innovators.
That's a good point. If we run with the analogy, we could also say that both the culture and the innovator "lay down roads", the innovator blazing new trails and the culture coming behind and paving the most oft used of those trails. The result becomes a large network of roads and trails that provide the opportunity for any newcomer to walk in novel ways ... a little bit on a seldom used trail, a little way on a super highway, a little way on some well used, but still unpaved paths, etc. In this sense, culture may not, itself, innovate. But it comes very close. Any drill down into the meaning of "innovate" will turn into a nit-picky rat hole. So it's safe to say that culture does (or practically does) innovate by optimizing the landscape for innovation... so easy a caveman could do it. ;-) -- glen =><= Hail Eris! ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com