Cultural Evolution vs. Technological Innovation

Cultural Evolution vs. Technological Innovation

Historically, in the relationship between human culture and technology, cultural evolution has lagged behind the pace of technological innovation. Technology is the human solution to fulfilling human needs. As these needs change, new technologies will supplement the old ones; inevitably changing the culture which created it, resulting in a co-evolution of technology and culture; and impacting the future of their culture. The disparate rate of cultural vs. technological evolution has consequences which cloud the prospect of the future of the human race unless we change the historical blueprint and try to thwart our disposition towards ignoring the responsibility we have today for the world we will live in tomorrow.

Cultural evolution is the nature of human interaction, their relationship with the environment and the immediate and long term trajectory of these interactions as influenced by inherited knowledge, lifestyle and customs is how a culture adapts itself to the progress within and around it. Morgan "saw the history of human cultures as a progression from savagery, through barbarism to civilization" (Chant 54). This progression was inevitably caused by technology.

Technological innovation is increasing human mastery over resources and sources of energy. Technology has developed because of humans' "fear of death that our consciousness keeps lurking in the background". Technology historically has given solutions to the problems of survival by creating more efficient ways to get food and energy. However, after humans establish themselves at the top of the food chain, although the threshold between survival and comfort is unclear; human focus shifts from brute survival...

... middle of paper ...

...chnologies than to change the cultures. The earth has reached the threshold, of human life that can be supported; in order to survive, humans need to take a two fold approach- the industrialized world needs to put into practice green energies; and all human cultures need to anticipate the macroevolutionary consequences of the daily culture and lifestyle. Choices need to be made, keeping sustainability in mind. History has shown that human law, religion, government and policy greatly influence cultural macroevolution.

Sources

Chant, Colin. Pre-industrial Cities & Technology. London: Routledge. 1999.

Cipolla, C. M. Epilog from “Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion, 1400-1700.” Sunflower Univ. Press, 1996.

Ehrlich, Paul R., in Human Natures: Genes Cultures, and the Human Prospect, Island Press, 2000.