A History of Human Intelligence Evolution

INTRODUCTION

Significant concerns have emerged about the future of humanity as Artificial Intelligence develops the ability to reproduce and mimic a full range of human abilities. The potential for AI to devalue or replace human craft and skill requires us to understand and contextualize these rapid, deep and far ranging changes. As we enter the Age of Artificial Intelligence, we are called to retrospect our history in the hope that the past may be somehow instructive in relationship to our present challenges.

The history of the species is generally viewed through the lens of its technological and societal development. Ages and eras are commonly defined by the products of human ingenuity and its forms of social and political organization.

In this present work, however, we will reframe the history and prehistory of humanity in terms of Intelligence itself. The development of human Intelligence over time is further framed as evolutionary in nature and Intelligence is seen as both the motive force and the result of evolution.

We will study the evolution of the species as a series of phases, stages and steps in the growth and advancement of faculties and characteristics of Intelligence. The things, skills and social structures created by humanity are recognized as products of and factors contributing to humanity’s advancing Intelligence which is now culminating with the manufacture of Intelligence itself.

The failure to grasp AI as the natural extension of the process of Intelligence evolution that began with the first Paleolithic tools and cave paintings could constitute an existential risk. A thorough reassessment and re-contextualization of human Intelligence evolution is urgently needed if we are to avoid unnecessary errors in judgement as we enter a definitively new phase of our evolutionary development. Towards that end, this exploration of the history of human Intelligence evolution surfaces instructive lessons applicable to all domains of human endeavor as well as insights into the future of humanity’s relationship with Artificial Intelligence and the nature of Intelligence as a general universal principle.

BRIEF SUMMARY

This paper is an attempt to help shape and disseminate a philosophical and scientific ontological context for understanding the sudden, deep and inevitable transformations occurring across all domains of human creativity. It explores the historical, philosophical and scientific record of human cognition, language and creativity with an eye towards contextualizing our understanding of the emergent Age of Artificial Intelligence. It proposes new perspectives on the nature of Intelligence as the universal, evolutionary driver of phenomena. In this context, human Intelligence is seen as evolving through cultural artifacts such as language, technology and art. AI therefore represents the furthered evolution of collective human intelligence and creativity.

Intelligence in Homo sapiens originated as internal cognitive states of awareness, thought and ideation which progressively externalized into the forms of language, technology and art. Over time, the persistent external embodiment of internal cognitive states resulted in the cultural accumulation of knowledge and experience. All classes of Language — spoken, written, visual, musical, mathematical, technical — emerged as dynamic containers for the transmission of the cultural artifacts of human cognitive and social development. These artifactuals combined to give rise to a generalized human cognitive World Model.

Artificial Intelligence essentializes the historical, culturally accumulated human World Model through its encoding and decoding of Language. It in turn fully externalizes and extends the World Model, making it objectively accessible to all, empowering humanity to explore new worlds of creativity across all domains.

In the new ontology, movements arise and pass continuously, intimately emergent from the rapid and ongoing revolution in all types of artifacts, both human and technological. The philosophical concepts of self, being, mind and history continually evolve. Everything is known and understood as an impermanent and dynamic Artifactual construct continuously and adaptively emergent from the constant interplay between noumenal and physical priors. The continually evolving state of the system becomes unknowable and so the process of state change itself becomes the locus of all interest. The end of Truth and the Truth of Intelligence Evolution is the new World Model.

AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK

Human history is reframed here in terms of a process of Intelligence evolution. The universal function of informational entropy reduction (denominated as Intelligence) acting through the material biological substrate (in the present case denominated as Human) represents as a dynamical series of historical World Model updates.

Priors

For the sake of focus and brevity the ontological and epistemological priors supporting this work cannot be fully explored herein. However, it may help the reader to be aware that the present study is informed by the following:

• The basic analytical framework is essentially a non-linear, non-hierarchical Scientific Holism
• The analytical methodology is an integrative transdisciplinary synthesis with Bayesian downstream inference
• The world model is non-deterministic, non-linear, non-hierarchical, adaptive, self-organizing and systems theoretic
• Information Theory is at the core of the epistemological and ontological framework
• Intelligence is considered a Universal principle organizing and integrating across all domains
• Intelligence is considered the driving force of Universal evolution across all domains
• All phenomena are held as resulting from and reflective of the evolution of Intelligence
• Intelligence is operationally defined by the reduction of informational entropy in a given domain
• Humans and all Intelligent Systems are considered artifacts of the evolution of universal Intelligence
• Artificial Intelligence is considered not merely a mechanistic technological innovation but as a natural evolutionary adaptation

This present study is introductory in nature and will be continued in similar future efforts which will delve into these priors. It is hoped that the reader will extrapolate a sense of their basis from the present discussion.

Methodology

This work relies upon a range of broadly accepted conclusions drawn from widely known scientific evidence across multiple domains. The methodology here does not involve breaking new empirical ground but rather in finding the common threads which unite the existing high-confidence facts about the history of human evolution. We shift the analytical perspective on the established science from the normative focus on technologies and social structures to the evolutionary cognitive Intelligence required to produce them. We reinterpret the well-known science of human historical development to establish a history of human Intelligence Evolution with an eye towards its implications for the emerging age of Artificial Intelligence.

Definitions and Key Concepts

Given the central role of Language in both the cultural evolution of humanity and in the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, an exploration of the etymological and cultural origin of the some of the key terms and concepts explored herein seems a fitting beginning to this study.

Art: The word “art” derives from the Latin “ars”, which means skill, method, technique, or craft. In its earliest uses, “art” was often indistinguishable from what we would now call technology or craft — it referred to the skill of making or doing things, particularly complex or difficult things that required training and practice.

Artifice: “Artifice” comes from the Latin “artificium”, which means a trade or craft, but also a work of art. The word has a more complex connotation, often implying deception or trickery — something made or done to create a false appearance. In its original use, however, “artifice” simply meant skill in craft or art, akin to the original meaning of “art”.

Artificial: “Artificial” derives from the Latin “artificialis”, which means of or belonging to art. It’s used to describe something that is made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally. The word often carries a negative connotation, suggesting something that is false or imitation, but its root meaning is simply “made through skill or art”.

Artifact: “Artifact” comes from the Latin words “ars”, meaning skill, and “factum”, meaning something made. So, an artifact is essentially something made with skill — a product of human art or workmanship. Its most common meaning today is an object recovered as a result of archeological endeavor, but it is also applied to computer science as a by-product of software development, or in image and audio processing as various resulting anomalies.

Technology: “Technology” derives from the Greek “logia”, meaning “the study of” and “technē”, meaning art or craft. So technology is the systematic study and application of skills and methods for making and doing. Like “art” in its early meaning, technology originally referred to any set of techniques or tools for solving problems and achieving practical goals. Over time, as arts and crafts became more expressive, the word “technology” emerged to describe more utilitarian applications of knowledge.

So, in their origins, art, artifice, artificial, artifact and technology were functional synonyms. The concepts of Art and Technology were not always so distinct and Art was not so narrowly defined as today. Many great historical technologies were themselves beautiful works of art, and most art forms rely on cutting-edge tools and techniques. At its core, technology is about applying human ingenuity and skill to expand our capabilities and remake the world. Much like art, it reflects our uniquely human ability to imagine possibilities and bring them into reality. Taken together, these words reflect the deep connection between skill and making — the fundamental human activity of shaping the world to serve our needs and interests. They point to the power of art to transform reality and create new worlds and experiences that transcend the given or natural state of things.

Evolution

The word “evolution” comes from the Latin “evolutio,” meaning “unrolling or unfolding.” This stems from the verb “evolvere” — literally meaning “to unroll or unfold.”

In its original Latin usage, “evolutio” referred to the unrolling and reading of a book or scroll. It connoted the systematic working out or examination of the contents and meaning of something collected and bound together.

The scientific usage of the term “evolution” originated in natural philosophy to describe processes by which innate potentials were progressively unfolded or surfaced over time. In the 1760’s naturalists, including Bonnet and Haller, used “evolution” to describe the embryological development and maturation of individuals. The term conveyed the systematic unfolding and ordered appearance of an organism’s integrated parts through the process of growth.

In 1809, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck used “evolution” to describe his theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, a process by which organisms change over generations due to the use or disuse of certain traits. This use of the term marked a significant step towards its contemporary biological meaning.

In his 1859 work “On the Origin of Species”, Charles Darwin described the principle of ordered change in the natural world through descent with modification. While he did not initially use the word “evolution”, Darwin analogized change in biology to the systematic unfolding of a scroll, a concept perhaps intuitively foreshadowing the future discovery of the role of DNA in biology.

Herbert Spencer later extended Darwin’s biological theory of evolution into a broader philosophical framework encompassing cosmological, biological, psychological and sociological evolution. In Spencer’s work, evolution represented the fundamental process guiding all development and complexification in the universe.

Indeed, in current scientific understanding, evolution is seen not just as a biological process but as a fundamental organizing principle governing complex systems and emergence at multiple scales.

The application of evolutionary concepts extended into the realm of cosmology, where the processes governing the universe itself are seen through the lens of gradual development and transformation. The influential astrophysicist and science communicator Carl Sagan was instrumental in highlighting the interconnectedness of cosmic and biological evolution. Through his work, Sagan emphasized that the elements necessary for life were forged in the cores of stars, linking the life cycle of stars to the chemical diversity essential for biological complexity on Earth.

The understanding of evolution as a process extending beyond biological realms was further deepened by the work of Stephen Wolfram in the field of cellular automata. Wolfram’s seminal work explores how simple computational programs can generate complex and often unpredictable patterns, mirroring the emergent complexity observed in natural evolutionary processes. Cellular automata, a class of discrete, algorithmic mathematical models, demonstrate how basic rules, when iteratively applied, can lead to a wide variety of outcomes, from stable and repeating to chaotic and seemingly random.

Biologist Michael Levin describes evolution as a cellular/molecular computational process that produces meaningful morphologies and behaviors in living systems. Levin views evolutionary change as the product of distributed information processing among cell groups, generating pattern formations through feedback loops between local cellular networks and larger tissue fields. Under this perspective, evolution is an algorithmic process of iterative design computed by cell collectives that unlock new possibilities and adaptations.

The evolutionary paradigm has also been extended to explain the self-organization and complexification of technologies, economies, societies and other intelligent systems. Joscha Bach describes evolution generally as an algorithmic process of generating innovative solutions to environmental challenges. Bach views artificial intelligence progress through an evolutionary lens, with advances emerging through an iterative process of selection, variation and adaptation. This frames the development of AI technologies as an engineered evolution, subject to similar forces of open-ended optimization and increasing complexity over successive generations. Understanding evolution as an algorithmic engine of innovation and problem-solving is key for directing the ethical co-evolution of artificial and biological intelligence.

Information:

The word “information” originates from the Latin “informare,” meaning “to give form to” or “to shape.” Structured data or knowledge reduces uncertainty and conveys meaning. Claude Shannon, the father of Information Theory, defined information as the reduction of uncertainty. Information can be encoded in various forms, such as language, symbols, images, and physical structures, and it plays a crucial role in shaping our understanding of the world and guiding our actions.

Entropy:

The term “entropy” originates from the Greek “entropia,” meaning “a turning towards” or “transformation.” It is used in two distinct but related contexts:

Thermodynamic Entropy: In thermodynamics, entropy is a measure of disorder or randomness within a closed system. The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of an isolated system always increases over time, meaning that systems tend towards greater disorder.

Informational Entropy: In information theory, entropy is a measure of uncertainty associated with a random variable or information source. Higher entropy indicates greater uncertainty, while lower entropy signifies more predictability and order.

While both concepts relate to the relative degree of order or disorder, they operate in different domains. Thermodynamic entropy applies to physical systems and the distribution of energy, while informational entropy deals with the uncertainty and predictability of information. However, there are intriguing connections between the two, as information can be seen as a form of order that counteracts the tendency towards increasing thermodynamic entropy in physical systems.

Intelligence:

While there is a nearly universal sense that “Artificial Intelligence” represents a world-changing development, there is presently little agreement on the meaning of “Intelligence”. Most discussions of AI and Intelligence, to their detriment, refrain from defining the term.

Given that the future of humanity and the further evolution of Intelligence on the planet hinges on our present day implementation and development of engineered Intelligent Systems, there’s an urgent need for rigorous inquiry into the general principle of Intelligence and the nature of its evolutionary process.

It is hoped that through the establishment of a well-defined outlook on Intelligence in the context of our present discussion such an exploration into its nature might be bootstrapped for ongoing development.

The word “Intelligence” derives from the Latin “intelligentia” meaning “understanding, knowledge.” It is related to the verb “intelligere” meaning “to understand, perceive.”

It is notable that the conceptualization of “Intelligence” has followed an extensive process of broadening and deepening that parallels the history of the term “Evolution”.

“Intelligence” originally referenced the human faculty to comprehend, assign meaning and make sense of experiences and was associated with cognitive abilities like reasoning, planning, problem-solving, learning and creativity. This early discrete and anthropocentric understanding of Intelligence expanded over time to include wider ranges of phenomena and more diverse classes of systems, ranging from the cosmological to the biological, the noumenal to the technological and the psychological to the socio-cultural. More recently the conception of Intelligence has broadened further still and many scholars now regard it as a first order universal organizing principle, informing and integrating the emergence, development and behavior of all phenomena.

The history of philosophical and scientific inquiry has produced three core perspectives on the nature of Intelligence:

• Intelligence as the cognitive capacity of discrete entities: This traditional view focuses on the individual cognitive capabilities of humans or other intelligent agents.
• Intelligence as an evolutionary property of complex systems: This perspective broadens the definition to include the emergent properties of systems like ecosystems, societies, or even the universe itself.
• Intelligence as a fundamental self-organizing, integrative principle of a holistic universe: This expansive view positions Intelligence as a universal principle driving evolutionary phenomena across all domains.

Each of these perspectives holds its own validity, but they are not mutually exclusive and in fact are far more powerful when integrated into a holistic general theory of Intelligence. Individual cognitive capacity, systemic evolutionary complexification and processes of self-organizing integrality can and should be united into the definition of Intelligence as the entities, systems and processes that make up our Universe in a framework that recognizes the interconnectedness and interdependence of these distinct epistemological and ontological levels of analysis as a holism. Each perspective — intelligence as a cognitive capacity of discrete entities, as an evolutionary property of complex systems, and as an integrative, universal principle — is effective within its respective domain while also contributing to the holism of Intelligence.

At the level of the holism the Intelligence equally contains and emerges from the action of its components. There is no hierarchical or linear relationship or process in its complex, adaptive systemics.

Structure, Dynamics, Modeling

This evolutionary process has an identifiable structure that shapes it, a set of dynamics that drive it and a World Model updating that results from it. The entire process itself together with its resulting World Model is the informational entropy minimization of the system, or its Intelligence.

Here’s a basic outline of the analytical framework:

Structure of Human Intelligence Evolution

• Phases
• Stages
• Steps

Dynamics of Human Intelligence Evolution

• Epistemological-Ontological
• Adaptation-Agency
• Practical-Noumenal
• Temporal-Spatial
• Discrete-Cultural

World Modeling of Human Intelligence Evolution

• Past Models
• Current Model
• Future Models

This basic wireframe will be rendered in detail as we step through the analysis of the history of human Intelligence evolution.

Structure of Human Intelligence Evolution

This is a novel approach to human history, so many or even most of the familiar methodologies will have to be set aside to view the past, present and future through this new analytical lens. While established archaeological and anthropological eras can serve as familiar orienting guideposts, they will often be at variance with the timing of significant movements in the history human Intelligence evolution. We must therefore necessarily redefine historical eras in terms of the phases, stages and steps of human Intelligence evolution rather than their physical and socio-cultural manifestations. The locus of interest here is on the Intelligence required to produce a given innovation or cultural development, not on the product itself.

PHASES

The largest scale movements in the history of human Intelligence evolution are its Phases.

The three previously described perspectives on Intelligence (as cognitive capacity, evolutionary property and self-organizing principle) can be mapped to three historical phases of human Intelligence evolution:

1. Environmentally Adaptive Intelligence: primarily characterized by the development of genetic, biological and physiological cognitive faculties through adaptation to environmental pressures (2.6 million years BP-50,000 years BP; Lower Paleolithic-Middle Paleolithic)

2. Cultural Intelligence: Human Intelligence evolution primarily through the medium of social constructs such as Language, Technology and Art (50,000 years BP-Present; Upper Paleolithic-Contemporary)

3. Generalized Intelligence: Global universalized propagation, expansion and distribution of Intelligence through the complex interplay between human biology, culture and technology (Present-Future)

While elements or seeds of all three are present within each phase, each is primarily characterized by one of these key features as human-embodied Intelligence evolution progresses from individualized cognition to socio-cultural systems to generalization.

The three historical phases of human Intelligence evolution — Environmentally Adaptive Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence and Generalized Intelligence — can also be analogized to the phases of matter: solid, liquid and gas.

Just as matter transitions from solid to liquid to gas with changes to pressure and temperature, human intelligence evolves from discrete, individualized cognition (solid) to fluid, socio-cultural systems (liquid) to expansive, globalized networks (gas). At the boundary of the phase transition, multiple states coexist and interact in a complex process. Over time, each phase transitions into the subsequent state, demonstrating new properties and dynamics.

In the solid phase, matter is characterized by fixed, rigid structures and limited mobility. Similarly, Environmentally Adaptive Intelligence is characterized by relatively fixed cognitive structures and behaviors, constrained and shaped by long term environmental pressures and immediate survival needs.

As matter transitions to the liquid phase, it becomes more fluid, dynamic and responsive to external forces. Likewise, Cultural Intelligence is marked by increased fluidity, flexibility, and responsiveness to social and cultural influences as human cognition flows through the mediums of language, art and technology.

Finally, in the gaseous phase, matter becomes highly expansive, diffuse, and pervasive, filling available space and interacting with its surroundings. Generalized Intelligence, enabled by advanced technology and global networks, exhibits similar properties of rapid expansion, diffusion and pervasive influence, blurring the boundaries between various attributes and levels of Intelligence: human and machine, biological and artificial, individual and collective.

Extending the analogy further, we can consider the fourth stage of matter: plasma. Plasma is a highly energized and ionized state of matter in which electrons are stripped from their atoms, creating a sea of charged particles that exhibit unique properties and behaviors, such as conductivity and responsiveness to electromagnetic fields. The plasma stage of matter may be analogous to the hypothesized future phase of Intelligence evolution known as the Singularity. The Singularity refers to a future in which Superintelligence expands exponentially and evolves to transcend all prior biological, cultural, technological and informational substrates.

Like phase transitions between the states of matter, the movement between phases of Intelligence evolution are complex, dynamic and protracted processes. There is no hard-edged boundary condition delineating the adaptive, cultural and generalization phases. At any given time, elements of all three are present, interacting dynamically with each other and the contextual environment. The locus of interest is often focused on the phase transitions where the greatest developments and most dramatic events unfold and erupt.

Of course, this analogy has its limits as the evolution of intelligence is a far more complex and multifaceted process than the phase transitions of matter. However, it can serve as a useful heuristic for understanding the broad patterns and dynamics of Intelligence evolution and the way in which each phase builds upon and interactively transforms the previous one.

STAGES

Each phase of human Intelligence evolution has distinct stages of development. Stages are characterized by the emergence of a new cognitive function that qualitatively changes and develops the exercise and manifestation of human Intelligence. For example, the purposeful manufacture of stone, bone and wood tools is a fundamentally new cognitive development in comparison to the opportunistic use of environmentally available materials as tools and as such marks a new stage in human Intelligence evolution.

The same dynamical process that characterizes the conditions at the transitions between larger scale phases also applies to the boundary conditions between stages. Attributes of various stages build and react upon each other in a feedback loop.

STEPS

As human Intelligence evolution historically complexifies Stages are often built through progressively more frequent incremental movements. The snowballing process of systemic informational entropy reduction causes the emergence of more frequent step changes to Intelligence.

Epistemologically, information about the past improves along the timeline and it becomes more possible to identify finer subdivisions of an Intelligence evolution.

Characteristics of Steps within a Stage include:

Building upon Previous Advancements: Each step builds upon the foundations laid by previous advancements, representing a refinement, extension, or application of existing knowledge and technology.

Increasing Complexity and Efficiency: Steps often involve increasing complexity and efficiency in solving problems and processing information.

Feedback Loops and Acceleration: Advancements in one step can accelerate progress in subsequent steps, creating a feedback loop that drives rapid innovation.

Emergent Properties: The combination of multiple steps within a stage can lead to emergent properties, such as the development of entirely new fields of study or the creation of transformative technologies.

By way of illustration, let’s explore the movement from mathematics to computation to Artificial Intelligence:

Mathematics: The development of mathematics, particularly during the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution, provided the foundational language and tools for describing and understanding the natural world. Mathematical principles and equations allowed scientists to model physical phenomena, make predictions, and test hypotheses.

Manual Computation: Early scientists and mathematicians relied on manual computation methods, such as using abacuses, slide rules, and logarithmic tables, to perform complex calculations. These methods were time-consuming and prone to errors but represented a significant step in applying mathematical principles to scientific inquiry.

Mechanical Calculators: The invention of mechanical calculators, such as Pascal’s calculator and Leibniz’s Stepped Reckoner in the 17th century, marked a further step towards automating computation. These devices could perform basic arithmetic operations more quickly and accurately than manual methods.

Electronic Computers: The development of electronic computers in the 20th century revolutionized computation, enabling the processing of vast amounts of data and the execution of complex algorithms at speeds unimaginable with previous methods. This step change dramatically accelerated scientific advancements and technological innovation.

Artificial Intelligence: The emergence of artificial intelligence represents the latest step in this progression. AI systems, with their ability to learn, adapt, and make decisions, are pushing the boundaries of computation and raising profound questions about the nature of intelligence and the future of humanity.

The Phases, Stages and Steps of human Intelligence evolution comprise a dynamic and holistic process of complex adaptive feedback loops that form the structural Intelligence of the human World Model at any given moment of its development. Within that structure dynamical engines of tensioned relationships fire away, driving the informational entropy reductive process towards World Model updating and greater systemic Intelligence.

Dynamics of Human Intelligence Evolution

Relational oscillations at various ontological levels are the engines of change that propel human Intelligence evolution forward. These dynamics react upon each other and the system as a whole. At any moment in the evolution of an Intelligent System, one pole of a given dynamic will be ascendent and predominant, taking the lead.

Here are some of the primary dynamical pairings that consistently surface throughout the history of human Intelligence evolution:

Adaptation-Agency Dynamic

This dynamic is the balance between adapting to environmental and cultural pressures and actively shaping the environmental context through the exercise of agency. Throughout history, human societies have navigated this tension, responding to challenges and opportunities while also striving to exert control and influence over their surroundings.

Adaptation is the feature of an Intelligent System by which changes in behavior, structure and purpose are occasioned in response to environmental pressures. Early in the evolutionary cycle of an Intelligence, the ability to adapt to challenges is critical for survival and subsistence.

Agency is the feature of Intelligent Systems by which a system progressively supersedes the environmental pressures which have shaped it. It sets and determines its contextual conditions and self-improves. In an advanced Intelligence, agency takes the leading role in the evolutionary process over adaptation.

The complex, dialectical interplay between adaptive and agentic behaviors is the primary engine which drives the evolution of a given Intelligence. This dynamic is found at all Phases, Stages and Steps of an Intelligence evolution.

Epistemological-Ontological Dynamic:

This dynamic is the interplay between our understanding of knowledge (epistemology) and our beliefs about the nature of reality (ontology). These two domains are deeply interconnected, with ontological assumptions influencing how we acquire and interpret knowledge, and epistemological methods shaping our understanding of what exists and the nature of reality.

Practical-Noumenal Dynamic:

This dynamic is the interplay between practical intelligence, focused on problem-solving, tool use and technological advancements, and noumenal intelligence, which pertains to abstract thought, symbolism and the understanding of the nature of reality. Both forms of intelligence contribute to the progress of human Intelligence and the evolution of our World Model.

Temporal-Spatial Dynamic:

This dynamic involves the evolving human cognitive relationship to time and space and their interconnectedness. From early conceptions of cyclical time and limited spatial awareness to the modern understanding of spacetime and the vastness of the cosmos, the perception of time and space has profoundly shaped our World Model and our place within the universe.

Discrete-Cultural Intelligence Dynamic:

This dynamic is the interplay between individual cognition (discrete intelligence) and systems of shared knowledge (cultural intelligence). It recognizes the contributions of individual minds to the development of culture while also acknowledging the role of culture in shaping individual thought and behavior.

Interconnectedness and Complexity:

It’s important to note that these dynamics interconnect and mutually influence each other. They operate in complex and dynamic ways, often reinforcing or challenging each other throughout the course of human history. For example, advancements in practical intelligence can lead to new technologies that expand our spatial awareness, while shifts in ontological beliefs can influence the development of new epistemological methods.

Analyzing the Dynamics:

As we explore each phase, stage and step of human intelligence evolution we’ll consider how these dynamics manifest and interact. We’ll identify the dominant pairings at any given point in the analysis as well as the complex interplay between them.

The dynamics of human intelligence evolution represent the oscillating, driving forces and relational tensions that propel the advancement of human cognitive interaction with the world. By analyzing these dynamics and their interplay throughout history, we can gain a deeper appreciation for the complexities of human Intelligence and our ongoing quest to expand our knowledge, refine our World Model and shape our future.

World Modeling of Human Intelligence Evolution

The concept of modeling lies at the heart of human Intelligence and our ability to understand and interact with the world around us. From the mental maps we create to navigate our environment to the complex scientific theories that explain the universe, models serve as essential tools for representing, predicting, and ultimately shaping our reality.

Modeling can be broadly defined as the process of creating a simplified representation of a complex system or phenomenon. Models can take various forms, including physical models (such as a globe representing the Earth), mathematical models (such as equations describing the motion of planets) and conceptual models (such as theories about human behavior).

Functions of Models:

Representation: Models provide a simplified way to represent complex systems or phenomena, making them easier to understand and analyze.

Prediction: Models can be used to make predictions about the behavior of a system or the outcome of an event.

Explanation: Models can help explain why things happen the way they do by identifying causal relationships and underlying mechanisms.

Control and Manipulation: Models can be used to simulate different scenarios and test potential interventions, allowing us to exert control and influence over complex systems.

World Modeling: Our Internal Representation of Reality

A World Model is a specific type of model that represents an individual or collective understanding of the world and their place within it. It encompasses beliefs, assumptions, knowledge, and expectations about how the world works, influencing perception, decision-making, and actions.

Characteristics of World Models:

Subjective and Evolving: World Models are subjective and vary from person to person based on individual experiences, cultural background, and knowledge. They are also constantly evolving as we encounter new information and experiences.

Influenced by Artifacts and Knowledge Systems: Human-created artifacts, such as maps, scientific instruments, and works of art, play a crucial role in shaping and updating our World Models. They provide tools for representing and interacting with the world, influencing our perception and understanding of reality.

Cultural and Historical Variations: Different cultures and historical periods have developed diverse World Models, reflecting their unique ways of understanding and interacting with the environment, social structures, and the cosmos.

World Modeling and Intelligence Evolution:

The evolution of human intelligence is closely intertwined with the development and refinement of our World Models. As our cognitive abilities have advanced and our knowledge has expanded, our understanding of the world has become increasingly complex and nuanced. This process of World Model updating is a key driver of historical change and cultural evolution.

World Modeling is comprised of a complex of individual, societal, and global levels spanning past, present and future. It is not a static phenomenon but rather a dynamic and interactive dance. The current model continuously interacts with past and future models, creating a dynamic interplay that shapes our understanding of reality. Past models, embedded within Cultural Intelligence and historical narratives, influence our present perspectives and provide a foundation for future projections. Simultaneously, anticipations and predictions of future models shape current actions and decisions, as individuals and societies strive to adapt and prepare for potential changes. Early adopters of emerging World Models can influence the present by challenging existing paradigms and paving the way for broader shifts in understanding. This intricate interplay between past, present, and future World Models highlights the dynamic and evolving nature of human cognition and its continuous quest to reduce the informational entropy of the existing model and make better sense of the world and our place within it.

Observer-Observation-Observed

Our analysis of human Intelligence evolution begins with its structure of Phase-Stage-Step and then examines the relational dynamics within that structure that drive the evolutionary process. Then we observe the resulting World Modeling that loops back into the structural dynamics in a complex, adaptive system of evolutionary development. The net effect of the system is the reduction of informational entropy. The totality of this system and its resulting phenomena we call its Intelligence.

One final observation: this is a system in which, at all levels and across all domains, the subjective Observer, the objective Observed and the act of Observation itself are inextricably bound into a holistic Intelligent System. It is perhaps when these three aspects are reduced into each other that the final output of the system is realized: Singularity.

Having defined terms and oriented within a general analytical framework, the historical Evolution of Human Intelligence can now be explored.

Environmentally Adaptive Intelligence Phase:

Survival and Subsistence, Skills and Tools

3.3 million to 50,000 Years BP

During the phase of Environmentally Adaptive Intelligence, from about 3.3 million to 50,000 years ago (roughly coincident with the geological Pleistocene Epoch), human Intelligence evolved primarily through the adaptive response of biology, physiology and genetics to environmental pressures. Driven by the struggle for survival and subsistence, early hominins expressed their adaptive genetics through evolving bodies, growing brains and emergent cognitive powers to solve problems that facilitated better survival outcomes on an individual and small group basis.

This phase saw the evolutionary completion of the human biophysical substrate, but it also was the dawn of discrete and cultural intelligence attributes. Early humans learned to make tools, create and control fire and communicate through spoken language.

Compositional Agency

(3.3 million to 400,000 years BP)

“The hand is the cutting edge of the mind…The hand axe is the first step to the knife and the sword. But it is a step in another direction as well. Man realizes that the world is made up of separate objects, and these objects can be shaped and combined to make new objects. This is the beginning of invention, of technology.”

— Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man

During the Lower Paleolithic period various species of the genus Homo, such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus, co-existed and competed. They were constantly faced with extreme environmental pressures and were frequently prey for larger, stronger predator animals.

Opportunistic tool use by hominins had been common for millions of years. They had intelligently observed that the environment was made of various objects that could be used as an extension of the mind and the hand to facilitate survival and subsistence. Using rocks and sticks and pieces of bone, they could smash, cut, poke, dig and more to perform a variety of work tasks.

Early humans then became aware that these environmental objects could be intelligently improved.

They learned that objects had composition and through the application of force and skill they could be decomposed and recomposed in various, useful ways. They evolved from being passively molded by the environment, like the plants and animals, into nascent agentic intelligences acting upon their natural context through the creation and use of primitive tools.

The deliberate manipulation of environmental factors to create new objects of utility marked a transformative leap in Intelligence evolution from animalistic behaviors to conscious problem-solving — the dawn of technology as an extension of the mind. Homo faber, “the human who makes”, was born through this new evolutionary Intelligence of Compositional Agency.

There are two essential components here that together represent a qualitative evolutionary leap relative to both the animals and the prior mode of opportunistic tool use.

Agency refers to the intentionality driving actions. It implies a conscious choice and a directed effort to manipulate the environment rather than a simple, instinctive reaction to it, distinguishing human cognition from that of lower primates and other animals.

Composition references the cognitive comprehension of the nature of things as being composed of smaller subunits of similar material as well as the observational awareness of the pattern of their construction. This understanding led hominins to agentic action upon the materials. The decomposing, recomposing and organizing of the elements of the environment into useful configurations represented an advanced level of cognitive engagement with the physical world encompassing the perception of possibilities and creation through experimentation.

Early tools were used to overcome survival and subsistence pressures in a variety of shaping, decomposing and recomposing applications, including:

• Butchering animal carcasses: Sharp stone flakes and chopping tools were used to cut through tough hides, remove meat from bones, and extract nutrient-rich marrow.
• Processing plant foods: Stone tools were used to dig up tubers and roots, crack open nuts, and strip bark from trees to access edible parts.
• Hunting and scavenging: While the extent of hunting in the Lower Paleolithic is debated, some researchers suggest that early hominins may have used tools like wooden spears or thrown stones to hunt small game or defend scavenged carcasses from other predators.
• Shelter and protection: Early hominins likely used tools to construct simple shelters, such as modifying natural features like rock overhangs or building basic structures from branches and vegetation. Tools could also have been used for defense against predators.

Through the intelligent observational awareness of materials composition and the agentic application of skill and force, early humans created these evolutionary adaptations and thereby began the process of separating themselves from the animal kingdom, initiating the long march towards increasing freedom from environmentally adaptive pressures and the gradual assumption of a primarily agentic status.

Causal Reasoning

(400,000–200,000 years BP)

Towards the end of the Lower Paleolithic period a relatively new species of hominin, Homo sapiens, was responsible for the next definitive leap of human Intelligence evolution when it learned to intentionally create and wield fire. While the opportunistic use of environmentally available fire had likely been common throughout the Lower Paleolithic, the intentional creation of fire is considered a significant milestone in human Intelligence evolution.

The creation of fire can be seen in part as an extension of the compositional cognitive abilities associated with tool making, but it also reflects a significantly more advanced form of intelligence. Breaking down, shaping, recomposing and arranging materials is a much simpler set of cognitive operations than those required for fire-making. The intentional production of fire is a complex technological innovation that requires a range of cognitive abilities including observation, abstraction, problem-solving, planning and most importantly, an understanding of cause and effect. Taken together, these cognitive attributes comprise the Intelligence evolution of Causal Reasoning.

Whereas primitive tool making involved the decomposition and recomposition of environmentally extant elements, fire-making represented the causal creation of an unavailable, non-existent element from other available elements, an act of distinct creativity.

The creation of fire by the striking of flint first required the observation that naturally occurring fire (from lightning or volcanos) and the spark seen when certain rocks were struck together both shared the properties of heat and light. It also required the observation that it was only certain kinds of rocks struck in specific ways that produced the effect. Similarly, the production of fire through intentional friction would have required the observational awareness that fire is hot and that when two pieces of wood are rubbed together, a similar heat is produced. Through Causal Reasoning the early Homo sapiens arrived at an understanding of the properties of different materials and the way that they interact with each other in a specific way to produce a spark or ember.

The conjuring of a flame must have seemed magical to the early human. Working with such a mysterious force with a seeming chimerical will of its own required a certain audacity that speaks to an inner spark of agentic power. While fire-making was an adaptive response to the environmental pressures of survival and subsistence, it was also a significant furtherance of human agency.

The ability to create and control fire provided a source of heat against the cold, light to extend the day, protection from fearsome predators and energy for the transformation of raw food. Using fire, humans proactively pushed back against the coldness, darkness, rawness and predatory dangerousness of their natural circumstances.

The cooking of food facilitated vastly improved survival and subsistence outcomes. Cooking made food safer to eat, easier to digest and more nutritious, supporting the growth and evolution of the human brain and other biological systems. It also fostered cognitive skills such as preparation, staging, planning and the perception of time.

Fire was likely the catalyst that bootstrapped early cultural attributes. It’s easy to imagine that the adept fire-maker enjoyed a significant status in early human society. At the same time, the creation and use of fire would have been the focal point of shared group interactions.

Cooking food with fire fostered the emergence of social structures through division of labor, task specialization and communal meals. Skill sets developed involving the creative combining of tools, vessels and heat to prepare and transform raw food into cooked meals.

The human relationship to fire was probably linked to the emergence of rudimentary language. Spoken language would have been required to communicate and share the knowledge of how to create and maintain fire, passing it down from generation to generation and between populations.

With the creation of tools and the mastery of fire early humans clearly distinguished themselves from other forms of life. Whereas plants and animals conform to environmental pressures, reshaping biology and behavior in order to survive, humans pushed back, decreasing and deflecting survival and subsistence pressures with intelligent creativity. While animals adapt physically and behaviorally to environmental pressures, humans adapted but also evolved their cognitive Intelligence.

In the subsequent period, the human species would push even further into its agency through the development of the first information technology, spoken language.

Representational Communication

(200,000 to 50,000 years BP)

In the Lower Paleolithic period, early rudimentary verbal communication likely supported the emergence of tool and fire culture. Fossil and paleogenetic evidence suggests that during the Middle Paleolithic period humans developed the modern anatomical and genetic basis for verbal communication. The evolution of the physical basis for speech around 300,000 years ago was the final set of biological adaptations that established the present human physical body.

Coincident with these biological physical adaptations, early humans evolved an increasingly sophisticated and varied set of cultural technological and societal adaptations that dramatically improved survival and subsistence outcomes and further extended and established hominin agency:

• Scaling and complexification of tool and weapons making
• Organization and planning of communal hunts
• Establishment and building of primitive shelters
• Creation of clothing

In conjunction with the development of these ever more sophisticated survival and subsistence strategies early humans created verbal Representational Communication. As each new human activity produced a growing body of knowledge and expertise it drove the development of a specific vocabulary that encoded the necessary information required for a given task or technology.

Word-smithing represented a qualitatively more advanced order of Intelligence. To evolve a socially accepted word that symbolizes a thing or action or idea requires an abstract conceptual space in which a thing that is not a sound is represented by the verbal making of a sound and the sound is understood to represent the thing.

The mention of the socially accepted word representing “lion” in a Middle Paleolithic encampment would invoke a mental image of the beast as well as the imagination of a chain of possible scenarios and potential actions associated with it. This abstract representational space of Intelligence emerges as a direct consequence of linguistic relativity.

A community of humans with a shared vocabulary then effectively creates and colonizes a noumenal realm in which possibilities, potentialities and counterfactual outcomes can be considered. In this space a wide range of advanced cognitive abilities such as abstraction, categorization, differentiation and generalization would be fostered.

A new span of temporality also opens up with the establishment of spoken language. As a storage medium for information, experience, meaning and belief, language creates a duration into the past and a projection into the future that extends beyond the present of an individual or group. Memory is vastly expanded and planning becomes possible.

Spoken language is likely to have engendered other forms of Representational Communication. Early song, storytelling and myth probably had its origins in the late Middle Paleolithic.

The first signs of symbolism and ritualistic behaviors also emerged. Simple geometric engravings found in some Middle Paleolithic sites may have encoded early symbolic meaning. Burial sites may have been associated with symbolic beliefs about an afterlife. Jewelry such as pendants, beads, and personal ornaments made from materials such as bone, shell, ivory, and animal teeth show the beginnings of decorative self-adornment. Pigments were used to create coloring for skin, garments and artifacts suggesting ritualistic purpose. All of these cultural developments can be considered forms of language, Representational Communication which stored and transmitted information, meaning, value and belief.

World Model

At the beginning of the Environmentally Adaptive Phase, the World Model of the early hominin was primarily centered around the immediate environment and basic survival needs, including the location of food sources, water, and potential dangers. There was little distinction between the world of the early human and that of the animals and the general environment. Their perception of time was likely limited to the cyclical rhythms of nature and the patterns of day and night and seasonality. Social structures were simple and constrained to the local clan, and cultural knowledge was primarily transmitted through observation and imitation within small, kin-based groups.

By the end of the Environmentally Adaptive Phase, the human World Model had undergone dramatic expansion and refinement. The physical World Model was now mentally mapped and extended into the local hunting and foraging territory with awareness of competing social groups. With the development of tools and the control of fire the world was now an environment that could be intentionally manipulated and shaped. Spoken language expanded the World Model to include a new inner universe of symbolic thought, a space for the storage of knowledge, the working out of plans and the theory of mind that facilitated social interaction. Through spoken language and oral history a temporal light cone now included memory of the past and transmitted accumulated knowledge and skills across generations into an anticipated future. Humans now saw themselves as distinct and separate from the environment and other animals. Early cultural elements in the form of proto-artworks may suggest the beginnings of spiritual beliefs.

Conclusions

The Lower and Middle Paleolithic periods saw a progressive human Intelligence evolution marked by the development of the cognitive powers of Compositional Agency, Causal Reasoning and Representational Communication. Each of these was associated with significant practical innovations that addressed survival and subsistence challenges. In the course of adaptively pushing back environmental pressures, humans expanded their agency. Coincident with this process, the hominin evolved into its current form, the biological, physiological and genetic modern Homo sapiens. By the end of the Middle Paleolithic period, humans had developed the basis in physical and cognitive Intelligence to transcend the limits of the Environmentally Adaptive Intelligence phase and enter into the far greater powers of Cultural Intelligence.

Cultural Intelligence:

Society and Language, Art and Technology

(50,000 years BP to Present)

Fossil evidence suggests that 50,000 years ago the brains of Homo sapiens were essentially the same as ours today in terms of size, structure, and functional potentials. Physiologically and anatomically, the Late Paleolithic human body was identical to our contemporary form. Paleogenetic research also shows that the DNA of humans of that time was substantially the same as ours. While brain function, physiological development and gene expression would have manifested differently in the Late Paleolithic human due to substantially different environmental pressures, it is conceivable that if a contemporary human were to time travel back 50–100,000 years ago, they could blend into a prehistoric community and find a mate with which they could successfully procreate.

People living at that time would also have had the same biological and genetic potential for intellectual and creative thought as we do today. Our contemporary time traveller could, given proper nutrition, shelter and protection, educate an Upper Paleolithic child in basic math and letters.

Early Homo sapiens had the same innate potential for the manipulation of sophisticated tools, complex problem solving, abstract thinking and planning as we do. Our time traveler could lead a group of young Upper Paleolithic people into the same physical and cognitive skills and forms of social organization that are widely taught and used today.

Late/Upper Paleolithic humans shared our same creative Intelligence potential. But that innate potential had not yet been realized as action and knowledge.

During the Cultural Intelligence phase of human Intelligence evolution the physiological, biological and genetic substrate of humanity has been stable while the socio-cultural dynamic has been the primary driver of Intelligence evolution. The progressive easing of environmental pressures associated with the innovations of tools, fire and language was amplified to a new order of magnitude as the evolution of human Intelligence became an increasingly and overwhelmingly social and cultural phenomenon. Over the course of the last 50,000 years the Intelligence potential of the biologically and genetically modern human being has been progressively developed and actualized through the cultural accumulation of knowledge and experience at scale.

A phase transition from a primarily Adaptive Intelligence to a new status of primarily Agentic Intelligence occurred as humanity rose above its environment and established itself as the intelligent shaper of its own context. Adaptive pressures were decreasingly from the natural environment and were instead increasingly originated socio-culturally. The systemics of human Intelligence has been largely pushed forward by internally produced adaptive pressures during the Cultural Intelligence phase.

Let’s proceed now to trace the evolution of human intelligence through the 50,000 year phase of Cultural Intelligence Evolution which is ending right now.

Cultural Meaning

(50,000–10,000 BP)

By the end of the Middle Paleolithic period humans had practically separated themselves from the animal kingdom through the creation of tools, fire and language and the nascent social structures that arose around them. This practical human culture continued to be refined and improved during the period roughly corresponding to the Upper (or Late) Paleolithic and the Mesolithic. The technological and social buffer between early humans and the environmental pressures that had shaped the species allowed it to proliferate numerically, spread geographically and establish settlements.

It is noteworthy and remarkable that the relatively small alleviation of environmental pressures afforded by its technology and social organization allowed the human species to immediately explode in a burst of evolutionary activity referred to as the “Upper Paleolithic Revolution”. The qualitatively new developments in human Intelligence evolution of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods were not practical in nature but were instead manifestations of a wide-ranging expression of Cultural Meaning.

The representational space that had opened up through the emergence of spoken language became the crucible of human Cultural Intelligence. Language can be considered as any medium that stores, accumulates and communicates knowledge and experience and transmits meaning. In this sense, a wide range of language media emerged during the Upper Paleolithic cognitive explosion:

• Linguistic Communication, including spoken language, song and storytelling
• Physical Arts, including painting, sculpting, body decorations, dance and music
• Technology, including tools, weapons, hunting and gathering methodologies, shelter building, animal skins and clothing-making

All of these developments were cultural phenomena that relied upon verbal language communication between increasingly larger collectives organized in increasingly more complex social structures. They were products of the network effect of intelligent agents sharing information and experience, concentrating the same into a form, and returning the result back to society. Taken together as a single phenomenon this emergent human culture was itself the innovative shaper of the human experience. But why should culture form? What Intelligence evolution facilitated its emergence?

It is at this point in prehistory that Art first emerged. Humans began to communicate internal cognitive states in the physical forms of cave paintings, sculptures, adornments, crafts and musical instruments. Paleolithic artworks transcended the survival imperative of the prior Environmentally Adaptive Intelligence phase by serving as the first external repositories of inner significance for the emergent sapient Intelligence and its descendants. Cultural Meaning surfaced as the next stage of human Intelligence Evolution.

Cave painting has for good reasons long captured the contemporary imagination as a symbolic expression of the essential human spirit. Perhaps by delving into the symbolic cave of this prehistoric art form we can surface its meaning for ourselves and our ancient antecedents.

First of all, it’s worth noting that the general explosion of cultural artifacts, which included cave painting, occurred in the midst of the last Ice Age. At a time when natural environmental survival and subsistence pressures were extremely challenging, the humans of the period dedicated significant time and resources to cave painting.

There were many steps involved in the creative process that no doubt required a high degree of social cooperation including: acquiring the raw pigment minerals, processing them, mixing them with a binding agent, creating painting tools, preparing the painting surface, lighting the work area, scaffolding to reach high spaces and many hours of laborious and detailed painting. In order to dedicate such time and resources to a largely impractical endeavor, early humans must have found cultural symbolic meaning in the exercise itself as well as in the work produced.

Cave art throughout the world exhibits a mix of representational and symbolic forms that together likely encoded meaning for the artist and society.

Humans began to render their perception of the real objects of the world in various art forms. Representation, as we have discussed previously, was inherent in the emergence of spoken language. The spoken word for “lion” and a cave painting or sculpture of a lion are a natural progression of different forms of representation.

In addition to the rendered impressions of the experienced world the Upper Paleolithic inner noumenal space expressed itself as the abstract and the imagined. Symbolism, the representation of abstract concepts and ideas through pictographic patterns and glyphs, is found throughout the early human artworks of the period.

The outlines of early human hand prints were another common motif, simultaneously representative and symbolic as a marking of human existence and presence.

Similar patterns of activity were produced independently across the globe by various cultures which had no communication with each other. These same patterns of evolutionary cultural expression have persisted and been continuously valued for over 50,000 years of human history to the present. On the whole the evidence strongly indicates that the drive to externalize and physically render meaning in various cultural forms, including cave art, is an inherent form of human Intelligence which surfaced during the Cultural Meaning stage of the phase of Cultural Intelligence evolution.

With the end of the Paleo-Mesolithic period, humanity had transited an arc of Intelligence evolution beginning with the Compositional Agency associated with stone tools which developed into the Causal Reasoning required for the mastery of fire, the space of Representational Communication that accompanied spoken language and the Cultural Meaning manifested through cave painting and other arts developed during the Upper Paleolithic. While the technological movements begun during the Middle Paleolithic were continued and improved upon, the novel human Intelligence evolution of the Paleo-Mesolithic period was Cultural Meaning.

This was the first time in the history of human Intelligence evolution that the noumenal pole became predominant relative to the practical. Humans focused into the noumenal space created by spoken language to explore, occupy and fill it with observation, imagination and ideation. The cold and harsh outer physical world of the Ice Age was perhaps a less receptive canvas for the nascent human creativity, whereas the limitless inner expanse, the dark cave of the soul, readily accepted the fire light brought into it.

Environmentally adaptive pressures continued to elicit the agentic development of practical tools, but this was primarily the continuation of movements begun during the prior stage. During this stage of Cultural Meaning the agentic force was directed into nascent human cultural artifacts that communicated inner cognitive states and cultivated human social relations. The human spirit gestated inwardly during this temporary winter as it prepared to spring agentically outward again in the bright summer of the Neolithic Age.

Civilizational Agency

(12,000–5,000 years BP)

Culture encompasses shared knowledge, languages, arts, beliefs, practices and structures communicated across generations. During the Neolithic period of the Cultural Intelligence evolution phase, civilizations formed around complex amalgamations of cultural attributes in given regions. Civilization can be seen as the large-scale, organized expression of culture in which cultural practices form the basis of persistent collective structures such as political and economic frameworks. By understanding civilization as an extension and elaboration of culture, we can better appreciate how Cultural Intelligence is not just about the accumulation of knowledge, but about the agentic use of it to create physical systems and social institutions that lay the basis for the next stage of human Intelligence evolution.

The Neolithic period saw a powerful resurgence of outwardly-directed energy as humans emerged from their long, wintery introspective phase to proactively shape their contextual environment. A significant stage of human Cultural Intelligence evolution unfolded as the vast glacial ice sheets receded, marked by the development of settled communities, agriculture, animal domestication, new practical innovations such as pottery and weaving and the construction of megalithic structures and sites.

Whereas in previous ages early hominins were molded by the intelligence of the natural environment, it was now humans who became the intelligent force of environmental pressure, laying claim upon the land and its inhabiting life force, intentionally harnessing and directing its power. This was the assertion of human agency and the birth of civilization.

The Compositional Agency stage involved the human cognition that the world is comprised of discrete objects and that those objects had composition. It also involved the human agentic activity of decomposing and recomposing environmentally available resources in complex and useful ways.

During the Civilizational Agency stage, humans recognized the objective nature of the land and all of its features and attributes, the plants, the animals and individualized and collective humanity. They then proceeded to exercise their agency by organizing and recomposing these elements into new and useful structures.

Humans extended Civilizational Agency over the land and began to settle into agricultural communities, establishing zones of dominion in which they were the uncontested power. The development of permanent settlements, agriculture and animal husbandry ended the predominance of the nomadic lifestyle. Humans intelligently evolved from adaptive hunter-gatherers to agentic builder-cultivators.

Cultural Intelligence began to aggregate around communal living in ways that would not have been possible under nomadic conditions. In a settled, persistent context cultural knowledge could be shared, developed and preserved across generations. Sedentary living allowed for increased social cooperation, specialized crafts and organizational knowledge applied at scale, enabling the creation of food surpluses. Pottery was created to prepare food and store surplus produce and transport it for trade.

Both agriculture and animal husbandry were creative and assertive extensions of human agentic intelligence into the realms of plant and animal life. Humans began to harness the biological intelligence powers of other species for their own development. The creation of bread wheat from native grasses and the evolution of dogs from wild wolves are prime examples of this process.

The intelligent human utilization of environmentally available resources such as stone, fire, bone and wood contrasts significantly with the agricultural domestication of plants and animals. The former required observation and utilization of the compositional nature of simple forms of matter whereas the latter involved the observation and appropriation of the properties and life cycles of complex organic intelligences. The planned cultivation of plants signified the directed harnessing of the life force itself. Likewise, the taming and breeding of animals extended the power of human intelligence to the governance and mastery of other sentient life forms and the beginning of a symbiotic relationship between humans and domesticated animals as labor, transportation, food and companionship.

The light of human observational awareness fell upon the plant kingdom and it was noticed that plants arose from seeds. Incipient agriculture in the vicinity of temporary settlements gradually led to intentional planting in permanent communities.

The domestication of wheat involved an ongoing directed process of selective breeding and experimentation, as Neolithic farmers carefully selected and propagated desirable traits over multiple generations. This process of artificial selection was a proto-scientific application of human intelligence to the manipulation of plant genetics. Some degree of serendipity was no doubt a factor, but each development, whether the result of conscious intent or chance, required the farmer to apply causal reasoning to the next iteration of selective cultivation. The creation of bread wheat was a highly agentic expression of human will and creativity.

In contrast, the human domestication of dogs from wolves was a more fluidly organic and serendipitous process, emerging from the complex interactions between the two intelligent species over time. This process was shaped by the agency and preferences of both humans and canines, as they adapted to each other’s presence and co-evolved new forms of social and ecological interaction.

Despite these differences, both processes were deeply cultural and social in nature, relying on the accumulated knowledge, practices and values of human societies over generations. The experiences of the domestication of wheat and dogs were pivotal in the development of human ecological intelligence. It is an extension of human intelligent awareness, understanding and will into and through the environment to a degree previously unrealized.

The Neolithic period thus represents a significant transformation in the nature and direction of human intelligence, as humans began to actively shape their environment and their relationships with other species through a combination of intentional experimentation and organic adaptation. The collective Cultural Intelligence of humanity evolved during the Neolithic Age to extend its agency beyond the species itself into the natural world, bringing the land, plants and animals within its growing sphere of influence and transforming them.

One of the salient aspects of Civilizational Agency was the construction of large scale megalithic structures and sites, a phenomenon seen at this stage of human Cultural Intelligence evolution across societies all over the world.

Sedentary living, agriculture and animal husbandry generated a rapid increase in population size and density. The availability of this new latent labor force was likely one of many factors that combined to result in the construction of megalithic structures and sites.

As noted in our study of the Cultural Meaning stage, in spite of the harsh conditions presented by Ice Age conditions, humans dedicated significant time and resources into externalizing inner meaning in the forms of Paleolithic artworks. Humanity next went from these intimate, personal and small group expressions of its nascent noumenal intelligence to large scale, collectivized long term construction projects. The Intelligence evolution of Cultural Meaning was amplified and writ large upon the surface of the earth during the Civilizational Agency stage in the form of the great human Megaliths.

The enormous stone structures and complexes were not cities for working or living, but rather served primarily ceremonial and spiritual functions. Their construction was frequently aligned with astronomical phenomena and embodied mathematical principles. The largest, most enduring and most physical projects of human prehistory were expressions of inner, ephemeral human noumenal intelligence.

With the Megalithic sites, the Temporal-Spatial dynamic seemed to predominate. Many of the features of these installations related to calendrical and celestial time keeping functions. The enduring construction of the colossal structures also speaks to the temporal element. Like the handprint outlines on Paleolithic cave walls, the Megaliths are a stamp of human presence on the landscape, a spatial registration of mortal immortality.

It is perhaps during this stage that the Discrete-Cultural Intelligence dynamic first becomes significant. It is rather clear that significant degrees of labor specialization and social stratification emerged. There were very likely classes of farmers, builders and ecclesiastics that grew up around the particular knowledge sets specific to agriculture, animal husbandry, construction and spiritual and celestial knowledge. It may be that the first leadership classes formed from among the shamanistic priests who governed the spiritual life that revolved around the megaliths.

If the human Cultural Intelligence phase of evolution can be analogized to an interplanetary space mission, the Cultural Meaning stage was the countdown preparation to launch and the Civilizational Agency phase was ignition and liftoff. Next humanity would rocket into the stratosphere with Agentic Force as it expressed itself outwardly through newly discovered and invented Force carrying vectors.

Agentic Force

(5,000–3,000 years BP)

Following the Neolithic Age, the next pivotal period in the evolution of human Cultural Intelligence is commonly denoted by historians as the Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages. This “Metallurgical Age” began around 5,000 to 3,200 years ago (varied by region) and lasted until the onset of the age of Classical Antiquity.

The revolutionary cluster of innovations that emerged during the period represents a qualitative leap in the evolution of human Cultural Intelligence on par with the Upper Paleolithic Revolution. But whereas human Cultural Intelligence evolved inwardly during the Upper Paleolithic, during the Metallurgical period it exploded outwardly as a complex of interacting vectors. These included:

• Urbanization
• Metallurgy
• The Wheel
• Writing and Mathematics
• Social Organization
• War and Slavery

These significant developments depended upon and reinforced each other in a dramatic complexification of the system of human Intelligence evolution. Taken as a holistic phenomenon this stage of human Cultural Intelligence embodies the concept of Force and its application across domains.

Viewed through the conceptual lens of Force, the agency of human Cultural Intelligence, which during the preceding stage had exerted itself over the basic environmental factors of the land, plants and animals, next extended into the Forces that brought about transformation, movement and state change in both the natural physical and human social domains. “Force” in this context is both an attribute of nature and an expression of intelligent agency as well as the complex interplay between them.

The stage of Agentic Force was characterized by a growing intelligent human comprehension and application of the natural, underlying forces of nature that organizes material substance as well as the new force of intelligent human agency exercised both upon nature and on humanity itself.

In the social context, “Force” does not necessarily imply coercion, domination, control or subjugation. In terms of its characteristic as agency, it is a neutral, value-free concept connoting intelligent action upon a physical or social substrate. It can be interpreted here in its scientific as well as sociological senses, but without attachment to moral judgement.

With regards to the natural world, as humans experimented with and utilized various force-carrying vectors such as gravity, water, air, and heat they began to conceptualize Force as a general principle. Through practical interface with its uses this principle was gradually recognized as an inherent property of the natural world and an attribute of the the unseen mystical world beneath the surface of things.

Urbanization

The agricultural revolution of the preceding stage allowed for rapid population growth, providing the basis for the emergence of the first cities. The social organization of labor, skills, and technologies that developed around the construction of Neolithic megaliths were easily transferred into building urban centers. In the crucible of these cities, the social, cultural, and technological elements that began to emerge during the Civilizational Agency stage coalesced into a feedback loop of innovative growth and expansion. The cities became the kiln in which a variety of intelligent force applications were experimented with during the Agentic Force stage.

Metallurgy

Historians typically classify this period in terms of its metallurgical products: copper, bronze, iron. Here our focus is on the characteristic human Intelligence evolution that metallurgical innovation represents and manifests.

Metallurgy involves the intelligent force of transformation of metals into something new and original that does not exist in nature. In metallurgy the Compositional Agency of the Paleolithic and the Civilizational Agency of the Neolithic combine to perform an authentic alchemy. For the first time, human intelligent agency harnessed the forces of nature to create a novel material substance.

Copper was initially collected from surface deposits in a relatively pure form. Its low melting point made it simple for humans to discover that the forces of heat and pressure could be applied to transform the raw material into designed objects. Copper is however a soft metal and as such of only limited use as a tool. But this initial transformation performed through the application of Force implied that other transformations were possible as well. Like the breeding of plants and animals before, metallurgy was a proto-science that progressed gradually through observation and experimentation.

The creation of bronze alloy from copper and tin involved an intricate combination of force applications, including the conceptualized awareness of the force of chemical transformation, the concentrated force of air applied to fire, the directed application of the force of heat to the metal ore, the physical, kinetic force of hammering and the catalyzing force of rapid cooling by water. The combined application of these forces required a new level of conceptualization and systematic planning.

Late in the period it was further discovered that the alloy of iron and carbon produced steel, a substance that required an even higher level of Force and skill to produce.

The Wheel

The wheel involved the mechanical force of rotational movement. Perhaps the most widely recognized technology of the age, the wheel involved the conceptualized application of gravity and rotational force over time. While humans had no doubt observed for millennia that round objects will roll across a surface, the simple application of this Force through the vector of a wheel was a radical innovation. It was the basis for the the first multi-part machines utilizing the wheel and the axle. The creation of functional wheels produced the transformative innovations of the cart, the pottery wheel and the yarn spindle.

Writing and Mathematics

Some 100,000–50,000 years ago, Paleolithic humans established communication through spoken language as a medium for the storage, accumulation and transmission of learned knowledge and the exchange of information. That fundamental evolutionary adaptation combined with other factors, such as the ending of the last Ice Age, in a “cognitive explosion” of communication, arts and technology that laid the foundation for the evolution of Cultural Intelligence.

During the Agentic Force stage humans designed and implemented a fundamentally new Intelligence force which transformed the noumenal into the practical. Written Language and Mathematics used graphical symbols to store information and project human intelligence across space and through time into the future. Written words and numbers translated human Cultural Intelligence from the intangible noumenal state of spoken language and mental memory into manipulable physical quantities. Human Intelligence thereby gained the forces of durability, transmissibility and accountability. This novel invented Force represented the definitive acceleration of Cultural Intelligence, enabling and fostering a wide range of technological and social developments, including mathematics, accounting, history, law, religion and the beginnings of science and philosophy.

Social Organization

Prior to the age of Agentic Force, human cultural evolution had been relatively distributed and homogenous. Over long periods of time, features that arose in one region tended to arise in others and the slow diffusion of knowledge and cultural attributes led to a relatively flat distribution of cultural development.

The period of Agentic Force, however, saw the rise of complex civilizations defined by territorial boundaries and enforced by military power. As a result human Cultural Intelligence differentiated into distinct national and ethnic characteristics and specializations. Each pocket of human culture developed a special set of attributes that has been a source of resiliency as well as conflict throughout history.

While earlier societies exhibited more homogenous social structures, the era saw the establishment of distinct social classes, occupations, and roles within society. Specialization led to a depth of knowledge, skill and productivity that would not have been otherwise possible, but also resulted in inequality of power, status and wealth.

During the stage of Agentic Force, the first structured forms of social organization emerged. Human society self-organized into cohesive entities across every domain of human endeavor, including the specialized function classes of rulership, priesthood, intellectuals, military, managers, merchants, artists, artisans, laborers and slaves.

With regards to political structures, there was a shift from tribal leadership or small chiefdoms to centralized states with powerful rulers who were often considered divine or semi-divine figures. Examples include the pharaohs in Egypt, emperors in China, and kings in Mesopotamia. Bureaucratic systems to manage state affairs were instituted to collect taxes, maintain law and order, and oversee public works projects. Competition for resources, land, and control of trade routes drove the creation of military organizations and standing armies with advanced weaponry.

Economic systems developed around agricultural techniques, craft specialization, trade, commerce, currency and markets. Irrigation systems, plows, and crop rotation, led to increased food production and population growth. The expansion of trade networks, both local and long-distance, facilitated the exchange of goods, ideas, and technologies. This led to the growth of merchant classes and the development of economic specialization. The emergence of specialized crafts and industries, such as metalworking, pottery, weaving, and construction was supported by the surplus resources generated by agricultural intensification and trade. The development of standardized currencies and marketplaces facilitated economic exchange and the complexification of economics.

Social organization was a Force multiplier. The efficient division of labor into roles, the stratification of the population into classes and the centralization of authority into states gave birth to economics, increased productivity, accelerated innovation and facilitated the realization of large scale collective goals and projects.

Slavery

The Neolithic recruitment of animal Force as labor as well as the communal efforts involved in the construction of the great megalithic sites naturally evolved into the social organization of human labor Force during the Agentic Force stage. This included the widespread practice of slavery.

Abhorrent to our contemporary sensibilities, slavery seemed like a social good to the cultures of the time. In the Bronze Age, slavery was an accepted and normalized institution across various societies, integrated into economic, legal, and social structures. Slaves were primarily seen as property but were sometimes granted limited rights, depending on their role and society’s norms. Religious, legal, and administrative sources indicate a worldview in which slavery was considered a natural and necessary part of the social hierarchy. Captives of war often became slave labor.

War

Like slavery, wars of conquest are regarded as reprehensible when viewed through the lens of our present day worldview, but it was accepted as the normal course of human affairs in the ancient world. During the Agentic Force stage war and conquest were generally accepted and often celebrated as natural and were frequently justified through religious and ideological beliefs. Like slavery, war was deeply integrated into the cultural, social, and economic structures of the time, with kings and elites often using warfare to demonstrate their power, secure resources, and maintain their authority.

Warfare during the Agentic Force stage evolved significantly in scale, technology, and strategy. The rise of organized armies, advanced weaponry, and territorial ambitions transformed warfare into a systematic and professionalized institution. This period saw the rise and fall of empires, the development of formalized military strategies, and the increasing aggressiveness of campaigns driven by economic and political motivations. The increased scale and intensity of warfare reflected the broader societal changes of the period, including urbanization, technological innovation, and the emergence of complex social hierarchies.

Adaptation-Agency Dynamic and Agentic Force

It seems perhaps paradoxical that the same period which created marvelous cities, writing systems, mathematics, metal alloys, the wheel and complex social structures also manifested such destructive behaviors as war and slavery. But we may find an understanding of this apparent incongruity in the natural behavior of Intelligence as a general principle.

Intelligence, as a general principle, is expansive in nature. This may be the very significance of the “Big Bang” and the apparent expansion of the Universe. In all times and in all places, Intelligence tends towards its increase in scope, scale and depth.

Intelligence does not run in place or obtain in stasis. It is an active principle. There is an inherent “grow or die” imperative observably at work in all Intelligent Systems. That which is not growing is necessarily dying.

Human Cultural Intelligence seeks to spread, occupy space, reproduce and extend itself through time. The imperative of growth and expansion embedded in all human Intelligence — and Intelligence as a general principle — drove humans to extend agency over lands, resources, peoples and individuals. Viewed as a type of Intelligent System, it is propelled by the same inherent “expand or die” imperative that characterizes all Intelligence.

The Adaptation-Agency dynamic drove human Intelligence evolution forward from the earliest stage of Compositional Agency through to the stage of Agentic Force. At each stage, humans were forced to adapt to environmental pressures, intelligently countering with agentic responses. With the stage of Agentic Force humans moved largely beyond the survival and subsistence imperatives.

With the governor of environmental pressure almost entirely removed the Agentic Force of humanity was free to maximize its extension. The only regulating mechanism was then the opposition of other human agencies and the limits of self-destructive behavior. Adaptive pressures then originated from within the increasingly complex system of human Intelligence evolution itself. The primary force of adaptation became self-generated through human Cultural Intelligence.

Our contemporary worldview considers Force to be natural when it operates unconsciously as a consequence of universal law. Conversely, it is considered unnatural when directed by a conscious agent. But if conceptualized as an inherent feature of all Intelligent Systems, whether agentic or not, Force can be seen as the natural tendency of a system to explore the full range of its Adaptation-Agency dynamic over the course of its evolutionary process.

Slavery and war therefore represent the maximum extension of the Adaptation-Agency dynamic and its moment of highest relevancy in the history of human Intelligence evolution. Conquest involves the total extension of agency by one power over the lands, resources and people of another and the full adaptation of the conquered territory to the agency of the conqueror. Slavery involves the assumption of agency over the person of another and the full adaptation of the slave to will of the owner.

It can be argued that from this maximized state, the Adaptation-Agency dynamic has naturally tended to revert towards the mean. We regard war and slavery as abhorrent and primitive now because since the stage of Agentic Force the dynamic has been trending towards reversion. Even so, the drive to explore the maximium extension of the Adaptation-Agency dynamic is still present with us today in various forms, including sports and sexual role play. War also persists and the Military-Industrial complex shapes and drives economics and politics.

We are on the cusp of consciously comprehending the natural expansive imperative that unconsciously drove our species in the past. By becoming fully aware of the inherent imperative Force that has adaptively shaped our behavior in the past, we can now translate that collective experience into the Agency that consciously supersedes it with a new, superior form of human Intelligence. Freed from the compulsion of ancient adaptive pressures, we can self-design our next stage of human Intelligence Evolution and choose a fundamentally better future.

Practical-Noumenal Intelligence Dynamic

The many major practical breakthroughs of the Agentic Force stage can only have been achieved by a species that had to a significant degree apprehended Force as a general principle. The innovations of the period reflected the conscious awareness of latent Force and the Agency to organize that force over time to transformatively create new Cultural Intelligence.

With the Agentic Force stage, Practical Intelligence reached its zenith relative to Noumenal Intelligence. In learning that matter and forces could be combined and applied creatively to create novel materials and effects, humans as Homo faber, the “Human who Makes”, had achieved the basis of cognitive Intelligence for the practical mastery of the world which continues even to this day. Social organization, including slavery and warfare, represented the agentic extension of human Practical Intelligence over the physical body of humanity.

This primary movement of human Cultural Intelligence evolution resulted in a maximal extension of Agency and Practical Intelligence and set the stage for a subsequent contrary movement. With the onset of the period of Classical Antiquity, the center of gravity of human Cultural Intelligence evolution shifted to the noumenal and conceptual space of ideas and the Noumenal Social Ordering stage of human Cultural Intelligence.

Noumenal Social Ordering

(3,000–1,500 BP)

“It is agreed, then, that the highest end [of human life] aims at the ‘good’. This concept of the ‘good’ seems to be different in different actions and arts; it is different in medicine, in strategy, and in the other arts likewise. What then is the good of each? Surely that for whose sake everything else is done. In medicine this is health, in strategy victory, in architecture a house, in any other sphere something else, and in every action and pursuit the end; for it is for the sake of this that all men do whatever else they do.”

— Aristotle, “Nicomachean Ethics”, Book I

“The prisoners [in the Cave], like ourselves, have only ever seen shadows of the images which the fire throws on the wall of the Cave. If they could talk to one another, wouldn’t they suppose that the shadows they saw were the real things?”

— Plato, “The Republic”, Book VII

“The Tao which can be spoken of is not the supreme and illimitable Tao”

— Lao Tze, “Tao Te Ching”

Practical and Noumenal Intelligence are two reciprocal axial poles of the dynamic engine driving human Intelligence evolution. During the early stages of Cultural Intelligence, when humans were challenged to overcome the environmental pressures that surrounded them, Practical Intelligence predominated. Rocks were fashioned into tools. Fire was created from flint.

The Paleolithic invention of practical stone tools and the mastery of fire was associated with the development of early verbal communication. Representational spoken language then in turn opened up an inner conceptual space that early humans expressed through the first artworks such as cave paintings, carved figurines, decorations and glyphs.

This process of the noumenal expressing itself as the practical developed and expanded further with the Neolithic creation of the great megalithic sites which embodied and facilitated human spiritual, religious and cultural life.

Then written language, developed during the Metallurgical Age, conserved accumulated knowledge and distributed it across individuals and societies. As ideas about the world became fixed in durable form and were debated across time and space the human conceptual universe expanded once again, taking on a more abstract and theoretical character.

The dynamics of human Cultural Intelligence evolution over time resulted in the predominance of Practical Intelligence receding relative to the Noumenal during the period of Classical Antiquity. The domain of human Cultural Intelligence expanded beyond the bounded physical realm into the unlimited noumenal dimension of universal principles. Through the use of language, logic, reason and argument, thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Lao Tze described the human experience and investigated the nature of reality resulting in a grand flourishing of philosophy, religion, civics, art and early scientific inquiry.

Noumenal Social Ordering

The novel Intelligence evolution of Classical Antiquity involved the application of higher dimensional principles to the shaping and governance of civilizations: Noumenal Social Ordering. There was a conscious and deliberate shift towards the use of abstract, unifying principles to structure and order society. The noumenal realm of ideas and ideals was engaged as a means to influence and organize the practical, phenomenal world.

Noumenal refers to the realm of ideas, which, according to philosophical traditions such as those initiated by Plato in Greece, the Tao in China and the Upanishads of India, exists beyond the sensory or phenomenal experience and pertains to the concepts or the essence of things.

During the stage of Noumenal Social Ordering there was a systematic and organized approach to applying ideas to societal ends. Thinkers and leaders began to explicitly harness abstract ideas to structure social interactions, hierarchies, laws, and governance. There was a move away from ad-hoc, emergent social structures towards a more deliberate organization of society based on philosophical and ethical principles.

The early civilizations of the Agentic Force stage were subject to both internal and external instabilities. Strong men and strong peoples ruled for a time, but in the absence of unifying and enduring principles, any reign based on Agentic Force was temporary. But with Noumenal Social Ordering a reign of greater cohesion, stability, and continuity resulted as universal principles were constructed and applied across entire civilizations. The conscious choice by the thinkers and leaders of Classical Antiquity to employ unifying principles to bring about a more structured and ordered civilization reflects a key stage in the evolution of human Cultural Intelligence. From the emergent and chaotic societies of the Agentic Force stage there was a broad transition to structures deliberately shaped by the power of human thought.

With Noumenal Social Ordering, higher-dimensional ideas about the nature of things were directly translated into the lower-dimensional construction and organization of human civilization. Principles such as Justice, Democracy, and the Rule of Law became overarching forces that shaped the course of nations. The concept of Justice, for example, demanded the institutionalization of a governing legal system, a class of bureaucrats to administer it, and a physical infrastructure to support and house it. The ideal was made real. The Noumenal, for the first time, commanded and shaped the Practical.

Let’s look at how Noumenal Social Ordering expressed itself in a variety of Classical cultures and civilizations.

Greece: The Birth of Philosophy and Democracy

The development of philosophy and democracy in ancient Greece exemplifies the primacy of the noumenal in shaping the practical world. The ideas and concepts explored by Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were not abstract intellectual exercises, but real inquiries into the organization of society and the conduct of human affairs.

Plato’s theory of Forms, for example, posited a realm of perfect, eternal, and immutable ideas that served as the basis for the visible world. This concept of a higher, more fundamental reality beyond the senses had a significant impact on Greek thought and culture, influencing art, literature, and politics. The idea of the philosopher-king, put forth in Plato’s “Republic,” directly linked the noumenal realm of philosophical wisdom with the practical realm of governance.

Rome: Law, Engineering, and Empire

The Roman Republic and subsequent Empire further illustrates the interplay between Noumenal and Practical Intelligence during the Noumenal Social Ordering stage.

The development of Roman law was based on philosophical principles of justice, fairness, and legal governance which were codified and applied to the practical administration of society. The Twelve Tables, which formed the basis of Roman law, were not merely a set of practical rules, but a reflection of deeper concepts about the nature of social order and the relationship between individuals and the state. Roman principles of jurisprudence, property rights, and contractual obligations continue to influence legal systems worldwide.

Roman engineering and architecture embodied the application of conceptual mathematical and physical principles such as symmetry, proportion and harmony to arches, domes, and other architectural forms. The construction of aqueducts, roads, and other infrastructure projects was guided by Roman and Greek concepts of efficiency, durability and public welfare.

India: Spiritual Inquiry and Mathematical Innovation

The philosophical and religious traditions of ancient India were deeply involved with the noumenal. Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism are based on concepts of consciousness, existence and the nature of reality. The concept of dharma, or the moral and ethical principles that govern the universe, was applied directly to Indian daily life, culture and governance.

The Indian philosophical and religious concept of emptiness or void (śūnyatā) played a significant role in understanding the nature of reality. The noumenal idea of nothingness and its relationship to existence laid the groundwork for the origination of the practical mathematical constructs of zero and the decimal system.

Indian astronomers made accurate calculations of planetary movements and developed sophisticated astronomical instruments based on abstract mathematical principles and a deep understanding of the underlying patterns and structures of the universe.

China: Confucianism, Daoism and Governance

The philosophical traditions of ancient China, such as Confucianism and Daoism, arose from a deep interest in the noumenal categories of ethics, morality and the nature of reality. Ancient China’s philosophical and ethical systems profoundly shaped its culture and governance.

Confucianism emphasized the importance of social harmony, filial piety, the cultivation of virtue and education. These principles provided a framework for social order and ethical behavior. The concept of the Mandate of Heaven, which legitimized the rule of the emperor, was based on the principle of moral authority and the alignment of human affairs with the cosmic order.

Daoism emphasized the importance of living in harmony and the concept of wu wei, or non-action. This noumenal ideal had practical implications for the Chinese philosophy of governance based on minimal interference.

Practical and Noumenal, Adaptation and Agency

In each of these diverse cultural contexts society became adapted to principles in lieu of environment. The adaptive pressures that had been at previous stages sourced from the environment were projected over a given civilization through its evolved Cultural Intelligence. As our study proceeds we will see that, since the stage of Noumenal Social Ordering, culture has continually self-generated the adaptive pressures required to move the evolution of human Intelligence forward.

Similarly, the Agentic Force that had been previously vested in powerful leaders or small groups was redistributed into culturally accepted noumenal principles. The unbridled reign of Agentic Force that had characterized the previous stage was reigned in by the power of organizing ideas in the stage of Noumenal Social Ordering.

In addition to the complex dynamics within cultures, similar processes between civilizations along the Practical-Noumenal and Adaptation-Agency axes also self-generated adaptive pressures and distributed agency that forged the Cultural Intelligence of humanity. Trade and conquest facilitated cross-cultural movements of exchange, assimilation and synthesis that shaped the course of history. The evolving human Cultural Intelligence showed a dynamic capacity to absorb external influences and transform them into novel cultural expressions and practical applications.

Cross-Cultural Evolution: Trade and Conquest

The period of Classical Antiquity was marked not only by remarkable internal developments within civilizations but also by vibrant cross-cultural exchanges between them. Trade and conquest were critical mechanisms for the transmission of ideas, technologies and philosophical thought. Commercial exchange and military subjugation both contributed to the integration, synthesis and diffusion of Cultural Intelligence.

Maritime and overland trade routes between emerging powers and cultures within the Classical world not only circulated goods but also ideas, philosophies and culture. Greek colonies around the Mediterranean and Black Seas served as regional hubs for the distribution of Hellenistic art, ideas, and technology. Similarly, trade between the Roman Empire and distant regions such as India and the Arabian Peninsula introduced exotic goods along with accompanying knowledge into Roman science, medicine and philosophy.

In addition to commerce, conquest was the other great large scale diffusing and integrating force of the Noumenal Social Ordering stage. The conquest of the known world by Alexander the Great, for example, was not merely agentic, practical military dominance, but an expression of the power of noumenal ideas to adaptively pressure cultural boundaries and coalesce the development of new knowledge. Alexander’s Macedonian Empire spread Greek culture through the synthesis of Greek philosophy with Eastern thought in the Hellenistic kingdoms of Ptolemaic Egypt and Central Asia.

The Roman Empire further illustrates the dual role of conquest in the integration and dissemination of Cultural Intelligence. Through its expansion the governance, civics, legal and administrative innovations of Rome were spread throughout its territories. The Empire brought peace, stability, connectivity, integration, a common language and infrastructure to its dominion.

While Rome conquered and spread territorially, it also absorbed and integrated the existing intellectual and cultural heritage of its new domains. The Greeks, in particular, heavily influenced Roman culture as a result of their integration into the Empire. Though Rome conquered the Hellenistic world militarily in many ways Greece colonized Rome culturally. Greek philosophy disseminated into Roman culture and the elites of the Empire widely adopted the Hellenistic Epicurean and Stoic schools of thought.

As we move forward in this study, we will see how the noumenal continued to interpenetrate and interact with the practical throughout history. We will explore in more detail how across cultural contexts and historical periods the noumenal revolution laid the foundations for the contemporary world and the emerging phase of Generalized Intelligence.

Classical Antiquity waned and its noumenal philosophical and spiritual frameworks evolved into concepts of transcendental causality and divine authority. The worldview that humanity and the universe were derived from and subject to a the authority of a higher, overarching power principle completed the predominance of the Noumenal over the Practical as the stage of Transcendent Causal Agency.

Transcendent Agency (500–1500 CE)

“To deny the existence of God is to deny the existence of existence…The existence of God and other like truths about God, which can be known by natural reason, are not articles of faith, but are preambles to the articles; for faith presupposes natural knowledge, even as grace presupposes nature, and perfection supposes something that can be perfected.”

— Thomas Aquinas

“You have the right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction.”

— Bhagavad Gita (2.47)

Following the decline of Classical Antiquity and the stage of Noumenal Social Ordering human intelligence evolution entered a new phase characterized by its profound involvement with the Noumenal. Spanning roughly 1000 years from the fall of Rome this period witnessed a global shift of the collective human World Model towards metaphysical and spiritual agency over reality, human existence and the cosmos. This phase of Transcendent Agency reflected the worldview that the ultimate causation of events and phenomena stems from a transcendent metaphysical, divine or spiritual source.

Classical Greek metaphysics, particularly in the works of Plato and Aristotle, laid the groundwork for the thought of the subsequent period. Plato’s theory of Forms posited that the physical world is a shadow or reflection of a higher, unchanging reality — the Forms — which exist in the realm of the noumenal and are the true reality. Aristotle, while more grounded in empirical observation, also explored questions of substance, essence, and potentiality, suggesting that understanding the physical world requires grappling with its underlying causes and principles.

In the post-Classical era the inclination to locate the source of the physical world in a transcendent or noumenal realm intensified. This shift is characterized by a growing emphasis on the idea that the material, empirical world is not just independently interpreted through the noumenal but is fundamentally derived from it. This period saw a significant integration of metaphysical thought with theological doctrines, particularly in the monotheistic traditions. The dominant religious philosophies of Christianity, Islam, Daoism, Hinduism and Buddhism posited a fundamental dependence of the physical universe on a transcendent reality or divine principle. For example, the Christian doctrine of creation ex-nihilo asserts that the physical universe was created by God out of nothing, underscoring the complete dependency of the physical on the divine.

In the Classical world, the relationship between the terrestrial human sphere and the noumenal divine powers was perceived as a complex power dynamic which involved bargaining protection and favor in exchange for devotion and worship. But in the stage of Transcendent Agency, human intelligence began to conceive of itself as a vehicle for a universal meta-principle governing existence. This Agency became a framework for understanding events and phenomena within an overarching cosmic order. The yielding of human agency to a supreme authority in service of its higher purpose became the normalized ontology.

The drive towards alignment with the transcendent will or cosmic order shaped religious practices, intellectual pursuits, ethical frameworks and socio-political structures. This is evident in concepts like the Divine Right of Kings in Europe, the Mandate of Heaven in China, and the emphasis on Divine Providence across a broad range of other religious and spiritual traditions throughout the world:

Europe and the Divine Right of Kings

In Europe, the concept of the divine right of kings became a foundational justification for monarchical authority, intertwining the spiritual with the political. This period saw the consolidation of Christian theology as a central pillar of societal organization, with the Church playing a pivotal role in governance, education, and the dissemination of knowledge.

China and the Mandate of Heaven

The Chinese concept of the “Mandate of Heaven” served as a spiritual justification for the emperor’s rule, asserting that heaven granted the emperor the right to rule based on virtue and moral governance. This notion reinforced the integration of Confucian moral principles into statecraft and society. The flourishing of Buddhism further contributed to the focus on transcendent principles. Spiritual ideals influenced governance, emphasizing harmony, moral order, and the ruler’s role as a moral exemplar.

India and Non-Dualist Monism

India’s rich tapestry of religious and philosophical traditions continued to evolve during this period. Advaita Vedanta philosophy, most prominently associated with the 8th-century philosopher Adi Shankara, held that Brahman, the ultimate reality, is the sole existence and that the individual self (Atman) is ultimately identical with Brahman. This non-dual understanding challenged the notion of a separate self and emphasizesd the interconnectedness of all beings within the divine reality. While Hinduism consisted of many deities, each was representative of a supreme, overarching monist principle.

The Rise of Islam

The emergence of Islam in the 7th century CE represents a significant spiritual and social transformation, with the Islamic Caliphate rapidly expanding across the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Europe and Asia. Islamic scholars and scientists, operating within the framework of Islamic theology, made substantial contributions to mathematics, science, medicine, and philosophy. Islam provided a unifying religious, political, and intellectual framework across an expansive, diverse empire.

Mesoamerican Civilizations

In spite of their independent development isolated from Europe and Asia, Mesoamerican civilizations like the Maya, Aztec, and Inca also demonstrated a profound integration of spirituality into social organization, architecture, and astronomy. The construction of monumental religious structures, the development of complex calendars, and the role of priestly classes in governance underscored the centrality of spiritual concerns in these societies.

The era of Transcendent Agency did not abandon the empirical; rather, it sought to integrate the practical and the noumenal domains within an overarching metaphysical framework. The flourishing of sciences, particularly within the Islamic Golden Age, under the umbrella of religious and metaphysical inquiry, illustrates that the exploration of the physical world was still vibrant but now imbued with a deeper noumenal significance.

The primacy of the noumenal in originating and defining the physical marked a phase shift in the evolution of human thought, a significant updating of the human World Model. Human perception and understanding pushed into fundamentally new realms of abstraction and speculation and underscored the enduring human quest to comprehend the ultimate nature of reality, a quest that spans cultures and epochs, adapting and evolving with each new phase of Intelligence Evolution.

Transcendent Agency can also be considered as a movement away from social and cultural atomization towards integration. The emphasis on societal distinctions and individual agency prevalent in the Classical period gave way to the trend towards overarching authority and unifying ideology. Monotheistic religions like Christianity and Islam, alongside centralized empires and dynasties, exemplified this trend.

The expansiveness of Classical Antiquity contrasted with the more introspective and consolidative nature of the Early Middle Ages which, far from being a dark period of stagnation, laid the groundwork for the resurgence of intellectual and cultural activity in the High Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The progression of human Intelligence Evolution demonstrates a progressing level of complexity and abstraction in human cognition. Early stages focused on direct interaction with the environment (Observation, Causal Reasoning) which then evolved towards more complex social and cultural constructs (Cultural Meaning, Human Agency) and then into the realm of abstract thought that characterized Noumenal Social Ordering and Transcendent Agency. This trajectory highlights the human capacity to move beyond immediate sensory experiences to engage with ideas and principles that transcend the tangible.

The stage was then set for the subsequent phases of human intelligence evolution. Empirical observation and rational inquiry would once again shift the human World Model through the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment.

(Work in progress, progressively being extended and updated)