Genes, Brains, and Human Potential The Science and Ideology of Intelligence

278 HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

diff erences in wider culture, such as tending to be individualistic or col-
lectivist in outlook, are refl ected in brain networks.^25 Of course, these
diff erences will emphatically not be ones of learning ability as such. Yet
that is how they will appear in the single cultural yardstick of an IQ test.
One of the key products of such interactions among brains, and be-
tween individuals and culture, is the creativity it has fostered, from stone
tool making to modern technology and artistic culture. Th is is the mani-
festation, on an interindividual level, of the co ali tion of attractors and
refl ective abstraction described in chapter 8. A simple example— but one
far beyond the capability of other species—is the creative imagination
required to make even the simplest stone tools like those in widespread
use in early human evolution. An individual could pick up a rough stone
as an implement. But it takes the conceptions of a group, presumably with
much intercommunication, to imagine a purpose built hand- axe to be
used by all. And it takes a dynamical relationship to translate that pur-
pose into hand- eye coordination, visual imagination, in the brains of in-
dividuals. Th ese collective dynamics put tool making way beyond nest
building by weaver birds, dam building by beavers, and the use of straws
for termite dipping by chimpanzees.
None of this should imply that individual minds are passively pro-
grammed by social forces. Th e dynamics of social life are constantly
refracted through individuals with their own creative cognitive systems.
For example, development in expertise (at all ages) lies in the “collision”
(as Vygotsky put it) between mature forms in the cultural network with
the less- developed forms in the novice. Th e need to resolve incongruities
oft en results in the individual creating novel conceptions that can feed
forward to broader cultural change. Far from culture being merely trans-
mitted or copied, as Tim Ingold says, “Knowledge undergoes continual
regeneration.... It is impossible to separate transmission from knowledge
generation.”^26
Th e makers of stone tools were the world’s fi rst product designers. But
we all follow them. Every one is inventive on a daily basis. Whether it
is suddenly imagining a new recipe, a sneaky way through city streets, or
clothing design, we pass such ideas on to others, who refi ne them and
pass them back to the collective. And so on, so long as individuals have
the freedoms and ave nues for doing so.

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