An evolutionary view of innovation

Purpose - The early appearance of a form of innovation is accounted for as a feature of the evolutionary origins of intelligence. This is part of a view of intelligence in which the manipulation of continuous variables is argued to be more primitive than concept-based processing. Design/methodology/approach - It has been shown that continuous-variable schemes embodying self-organisation by automatic term selection can model aspects of biological learning, but only when applied to one particular task. On the other hand, a person faces many different tasks, and a versatile-learning system needs to have a means of classifying situations, and then associating the results of continuous-variable learning with the appropriate situation class. Findings - The classification of task environments postulated as part of the evolutionary viewpoint can be seen as the beginning of concept-based thought, as well as of innovation. Practical implications - The implications are general but may suggest how innovation can be fostered. Originality/value - The viewpoint is consistent with previous treatments of continuity as an aspect of intellect, notably that of MacKay.