> We're really good at cumulative iteration. Humans are turbo optimized for communities, basically. This is why brainstorming is so effective… But usually only in a group. There is an entire theory in cognitive psychology about cumulative culture that goes directly into this and shows empirically how humans work in groups.

> Humans learn collectively and innovate collectively via copying, mimicry, and iteration on top of prior art. You know that quote about standing on the shoulders of giants? It turns out that it's not only a fun quote, but it's fundamentally how humans work.

Creativity is search. Social search. It's not coming from the brain itself, it comes from the encounter between brain and environment, and builds up over time in the social/cultural layer.

That is why I don't ask myself if LLMs really understand. As long as they search, generating ideas and validating them in the world, it does not matter.

It's also why I don't think substrate matters, only search does. But substrate might have to do with the search spaces we are afforded to explore.