فرهنگ انباشته و تفکر آینده گر: آیا سفر ذهنی در زمان یک پیش نیاز برای تکامل فرهنگی انباشته است؟

Cumulative culture denotes the, arguably, human capacity to build on the cultural behaviors of one's predecessors, allowing increases in cultural complexity to occur such that many of our cultural artifacts, products and technologies have progressed beyond what a single individual could invent alone. This process of cumulative cultural evolution underlies human cultural success and has enabled us to reach and inhabit some of the most inhospitable environments on this planet. Why humans, but not other animals, have exhibited a cultural explosion has caused much deliberation. The human propensity to imitate, teach, “mind-read” and cooperate have all featured prominently in accounts of the prerequisites for cumulative culture. However, this may not represent the complete picture. In this article we consider whether there exists a link between future thinking, specifically prospective mental time travel, and the observed distribution of cumulative culture.

Re-experiencing events from one's past and imagining events in one's future is referred to as “mental time travel” (Suddendorf and Corballis, 1997 and Tulving, 2002a) and is well documented in humans (Homo sapiens). Many of the decisions we make in our daily lives involve some form of prospective thinking – imagining future scenarios by recasting past experiences – which, in turn, enables us to anticipate our likely reactions to potential future events. This ability releases humans from living solely in the present ( Suddendorf and Busby, 2005 and Suddendorf and Corballis, 2007), allowing the human lineage to act now to secure or avoid probable futures. In this paper we examine the implications of this release from the present, afforded by mental time travel and future thinking. Specifically, we examine whether the extent of future thought present in humans and nonhuman animals (henceforth referred to as animals) has influenced their extent of cumulative culture, a proposition that has received little attention. Since research effort in both domains has predominantly centered upon corvids and great apes, we restrict our discussions to these species.

We propose that a link exists between humanity's cultural accomplishments and the capacity for mental time travel. Human modes of future thinking seem well positioned to (i) promote cultural innovation, (ii) facilitate knowledge exchange by enabling larger social networks, (iii) enhance teaching capabilities through their orientation to pupils’ futures, and (iv) increase human investment in domains such as learning and long term goal pursuit. In addition to the prerequisite social learning channels required for cultural exchange, it is difficult to imagine how our species would have reached the levels of cultural complexity so evident today without the capacity to disengage from current motivations, or to imagine and to plan for the future. This is especially true for the maintenance of knowledge, skills and technologies that require years to attain with little immediate payoff. It is also worth noting that mental time travel may have influenced human culture in ways not considered here. For example, episodic memory and episodic foresight would seem essential for economic trade to succeed on a large scale, are likely to have influenced the formation and maintenance of cultural institutions and played an important role in cooperation and social regulation (e.g. rules, norms and law maintenance through the prospect of future punishment or reward). Moreover, a reduction in one's ability to imagine their personal future coupled with diminished control of impulsivity may hinder cumulative culture through the transmission and maintenance of maladaptive traits (e.g. substance abuse, Madden, Petry, Badger, & Bickel, 1997). Thus, we hypothesize that mental time travel constitutes one of a suite of abilities that play a role in our extraordinary cultural accomplishments.