UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Limburg 6211 AX, The Netherlands.
MSI, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Limburg 6211 AX, The Netherlands.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2024 Jan;379(1893):20220270. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0270. Epub 2023 Nov 13.
In this paper, we argue that the development, uptake and adoption of innovations resembles an evolutionary process of variation, selection and retention (within broader processes of co-evolution) in which actors are myopically caught. We do so in four steps. First, we review in what ways socio-technical evolution resembles biological evolution. Second, we argue that in socio-technical evolution so-called 'configurations that work' can be viewed as evolutionary units, which are subject to selection pressures, variation and human-made couplings between variation and selection. This explains why innovation is often cumulative, based on variation and recombination. Third, we discuss how producers, consumers, governments and scientists are myopically caught in processes of co-evolution. While humans are capable of imagining the need for system change and details of desired systems, they are less capable of accepting the concomitant higher costs and inconveniences and adopt new interpretive schemes. Fourth, in a pluralist world, steering is done by all kind of actors, including those who actively resist transformative change. Because of this, steering by government and coalitions of change can achieve little more than a modulation of ongoing dynamics, despite disturbing evidence of a run-away climate, mass extinction, pervasive ecological degradation and steady depletion of resources. A new consciousness of the Anthropocene can evoke fundamental changes in science and the economy if-and only if-they are sufficiently carried by institutional changes and new practices. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis'.
在本文中，我们认为创新的发展、采用和采纳类似于变异、选择和保留的进化过程（在更广泛的共同进化过程中），其中行动者被狭隘地困在其中。我们分四个步骤来做到这一点。首先，我们回顾社会技术进化在哪些方面类似于生物进化。其次，我们认为在社会技术进化中，所谓的“有效配置”可以被视为进化单位，它们受到选择压力、变异和人为的变异与选择之间的耦合的影响。这解释了为什么创新通常是累积的，基于变异和重组。第三，我们讨论了生产者、消费者、政府和科学家是如何在共同进化的过程中被狭隘地困在其中的。虽然人类有能力想象系统变革的必要性和所需系统的细节，但他们不太能够接受随之而来的更高成本和不便，并采用新的解释方案。第四，在一个多元化的世界中，各种行为者都在进行引导，包括那些积极抵制变革的行为者。因此，尽管有大量证据表明气候失控、大规模灭绝、普遍的生态退化和资源不断枯竭，但政府和变革联盟的引导所能实现的，不过是对正在进行的动态的微调。如果科学和经济能够充分地通过制度变革和新实践来实现，那么对人类世的新认识就可以引发根本性的变化。本文是主题为“进化与可持续性：为人类世综合收集线索”的一部分。
