30 | New Scientist | 30 November 2019
Books
Ingenious: The unintended
consequences of human
innovation
Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson
Harvard University PressPower to the People:
How open technological
innovation is arming
tomorrow’s terrorists
Audrey Kurth Cronin
Oxford University PressTHE termite mounds of Australia’s
Northern Territory are marvels.
Often 3 metres tall, they are flat
on two sides like tombstones, and
oriented in the same direction.
But unlike grave markers, they
sustain life, moderating the
harsh climate by absorbing
sunlight on chilly mornings
and evenings, while minimising
solar exposure at midday.
These mounds are a classic
example of something common
to many species: niche
construction, or optimising
living conditions by altering the
environment. Yet humans stand
apart at this. Through our unique
capacity to persistently transform
our environment, we have
extended our niche globally.
In Ingenious, Peter Gluckman
and Mark Hanson attribute this
to cultural evolution, the process
by which shared ideas advance
over time. For them: “Our ability
to develop technologies, learn
and communicate about them,
and then redevelop them... is,
effectively, human nature.”
The book explores human
ingenuity, and while the
authors sometimes labour the
obvious (yes, we know we are
a technological species), they
make a strong case for cultural
evolution. More interestingly,When innovation can kill
Cultural evolution may define humans, but its products include climate
change and inventions that have been weaponised, says Jonathon Keatsthey consider what happens when
the change it produces accelerates
beyond our ability to assimilate it,
and when beneficial technologies
are used for negative ends.
Runaway cultural evolution
may even pose serious orexistential threats. Gluckman and
Hanson’s most obvious example
is obesity, caused by a ruinous
mismatch between biology and
the niche we have created. We are
genetically predisposed to store
calories and use them efficiently
because food was scarce and hard
to gather during our evolutionary
history. Yet pre-packaged,
high-energy foods are nowViews Culture
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MAGESindustrial growth, but, as Audrey
Kurth Cronin documents in Power
to the People, the invention also
powered modern terrorism.
Dynamite was the perfect
weapon: it was easy to conceal
and detonate, and demand from
industry ensured it was readily
available. In 1881, a small group
of anti-monarchists assassinated
Alexander II of Russia using
dynamite, turning it into a global
symbol of violent uprising.
Superbly researched and richly
detailed, Power to the People
is a fascinating history of the
technology appropriated for
violence. Cronin describes how
AK-47 rifles became all-purpose
weapons after the second world
war, and why aeroplane hijackings
became so popular from the 1970s.
For Cronin, future attacks
will be fuelled by accelerating
cultural evolution relating to
such things as AI. Dynamite,
she says, offers clues to the
kinds of innovations that will
be adopted. It was invented
in an era of open innovation,
when amateurs were encouraged
to experiment. Some used it
to fish; others added clocks to
make primitive time bombs.
Its accessibility and ease of use
tell Cronin that attackers may
target the likes of consumer-grade
drones or infrastructural changes
such as the internet of things.
So can humans learn to predict
the mortal dangers posed by
cultural evolution, and avert
catastrophic mismatches between
biology and society? Clearly
to avoid extinction, our next
evolutionary move must be to
become wiser about ingenuity. ❚Jonathon Keats is a conceptual artist
and experimental philosopherwidespread just as we have
become increasingly sedentary.
Other evolutionary mismatches
include the impact of social media
on our political structures, which
are undermined by surveillance
and hacking. Even more profound
is the mismatch climate change
brings, as fossil fuel-powered
vehicles and cities wreck Earth.
“Technology seduces us,” write
Gluckman and Hanson. Unlike
animals, we innovate way past
survival needs – on a whim, for
convenience or pleasure. And
while cultural evolution helps
us achieve almost anything,
it is blind to consequences.
This problem is urgent, but
not new. Consider Alfred Nobel’s
invention of dynamite back in
the 1860s. He created it as a safer,
more reliable alternative to the
standard nitroglycerine used in
mining and heavy construction.
He laid the groundwork for epicDrones can be used to
carry out attacks“ The evolutionary
mismatch of climate
change means fossil
fuel-powered vehicles
are wrecking Earth”