“Stigmergia!” » The word is enough to frighten you, undoubtedly lodged somewhere between a natural science treatise and a science fiction book. It deserves attention. This “stigmergy” refers to one of the most daring hypotheses of evolutionary biology: the idea that culture can exist without any form of learning.
Everyone has long known that animals are capable of dazzling natural coordination. Their intelligence can operate in swarms. It was formed in a co-evolution between genetic determinants and the accumulation of cultural phenomena, the famous “memes” which linguists have been talking about for more than 40 years following the philosopher Daniel Dennett.