Humans and their ancestors have, over millions of years, developed a capacity for culture that is qualitatively different from that of any other species, based on abstract symbolic thought and characterized by open endedness. Humans have the ability to learn and execute complex sequences of steps to accomplish an ultimate goal. These steps or subgoals are “modular” in the sense that they can be employed individually to accomplish a number of different tasks. Furthermore, they can be creatively recombined in novel sequences to meet new needs.
Based on this highly enhanced capacity for culture, humans have spread more widely across the globe, inhabiting a greater variety of environments, than any other vertebrate species. Newly published research (Perreault, 2026, PNAS, “Cultural evolution accelerated human range expansion by more than two orders of magnitude”) compares the range of ecological settings occupied by humans with those of a range of other mammalian species, demonstrating the qualitative advantage conferred on humans due to their unique capacity for culture.