New Books Network Douglas H. Erwin, "The Origins of the New: Novelty and Innovation in the History of Life, Culture, and Technology" (Princeton UP, 2026)
Apr 6, 2026
Douglas H. Erwin, retired Smithsonian paleobiologist and Santa Fe Institute researcher, explores how novelty and innovation differ across biology, culture, and technology. He outlines a four-phase model—potentiation, novelty, refinement, innovation. He applies it to feathers, language, computing, and ecosystems, and discusses how new opportunity spaces and public goods shape what succeeds.
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Separate Origin From Success
- Novelty (origin of a trait) is distinct from innovation (its later success), so evolutionary origin and ecological dominance are separate problems.
- Examples: turtle shell origin vs later success; grasses originated long before they dominated landscapes by tens of millions of years.
Four Phase Path To New Forms
- Erwin's four-phase model: potentiation, novelty, refinement, then innovation explains how new traits emerge and later succeed.
- Example: tetrapod limb genes evolved long before limbs appeared; refinement then improves initial imperfect novelties.
Ancient Analog Computer That Vanished
- The Antikythera mechanism shows a complex novelty can appear yet fail to spread, later reappearing millennia after.
- Ancient Greeks built an analog computer but the technology disappeared until rediscovery ~2,000 years later.
