Tinkering toward what? On the absence of fitness goals in cultural evolution.

Chater and Christiansen rightly argue that cultural change is intelligent, directed, and coordinative rather than blind. But the metaphor of tinkering they borrow from Jacob is intelligible only because biology specifies what tinkering is for: inclusive fitness. In their account, the analogous criterion is missing. Restoring fitness, channeled through local ecologies, would supply what the framework currently lacks.