The Evolution of Evolvability Applied to Human Creativity

The Evolution of Evolvability Applied to Human Creativity

Dawkins (2004, pp. 603-612) discusses the possibility that the process of biological evolution itself evolves, with organisms not just improving their own capacity to survive and reproduce, but also the lineage’s capacity to evolve. He cites several watershed phylogenetic events, like the origins of bodily segmentation, multicellularity, and sexual reproduction, after which evolvability improved. I explore the evolution of evolvability, or EOE, as a framework for understanding human creativity. After defining EOE, I compare biological EOE watersheds to analogous concepts in the creativity literature: paradigm shifts, meta-inventions, and schemata. Building on these links, I argue that to profitably analogize from the intrinsic embryological focus of EOE, creativity research needs a dynamic understanding of discrete elements of the creative process. Finally, I discuss implications of EOE for creativity, focusing on metacognition, the creative person, and domain richness.