Steal this spear: Our long history of creative theft

Do you believe you are a creative person?

You don't have to be humble (and Canadian). You can admit that somewhere inside your skull is an inner Steve Jobs aching to redesign the world.

There's no reason not to think this way. We are in a culture after all that applauds creative thinking and innovation.

Business books practically scream innovate your way to riches. And if you are an artist, the manifesto of the modern age is still "Make it new!" in the words of the zany poet Ezra Pound.

He didn't say make a few adjustments. Or imitate. But that is exactly, it seems, what we humans are so great at doing.

Evolutionary biologists like Mark Pagel are telling us that we should stop flattering ourselves about our creative genius and listen to our inner imitator.

In a marvelous talk on the science website Edge, Pagel, who teaches at the University of Reading in Britain, argues that humans are essentially copycats.

That's our genius.
Social learning

His argument is that we humans are evolutionary successes (that is, so far) because of what he calls "social learning."

Simply put, we watch and imitate. Not blindly, but with real purpose.

A chimp can imitate too, says Pagel. Our primate cousins can be taught to wash the dishes. But they will wash the clean and the dirty ones, for a banana.

Humans know to wash dirty dishes when they're dirty and leave the clean ones alone (oh please tell this to my children!).

Growing up in groups, only a tiny handful of people were truly innovative. Others round the fire copied. Then they spread their copying through language and group activity.

It's the same today except that we live in a more grasping culture pitched to copyright laws and lawsuits over the slightest smidgen of borrowing.

A case in point: when high-fashion designer Christian Louboutin came out with a $1,000 red-soled, high-heeled shoe, rival Yves Saint Laurent brought out its own version, provoking Christian Louboutin to sue for trademark violation.

But how do you copyright a colour? Or an expression like "You're fired"?

Donald Trump lost that one, trying to patent the famous line from his TV show, The Apprentice, and raising the question: How much new is really new?