Social tinkering generates complexity, but also system-scale fragility and collective delusions.

The hypothesis that human culture emerges through deliberate, decentralized social tinkering rather than random variation is persuasive. However, the hypothesis is ambiguous about the stability of the resulting structures. Expanding scale may increase fragility and normative conflict, and networks of socially constructed coordination spaces may amplify imaginative disconnection from reality. Consequently, system-scale risks arise that exceed the grasp of governable tinkering.