---
description: Our cognitive limitations -- 4-7 item working memory, Dunbar's 150, systematic biases -- are not imperfections in a powerful system but evidence we barely crossed the threshold for cumulative culture
type: claim
domain: cultural-dynamics
created: 2026-02-16
confidence: likely
source: "TeleoHumanity Manifesto, Minimum Sufficient Rationality"
---

# humans are the minimum viable intelligence for cultural evolution not the pinnacle of cognition

The standard narrative treats human intelligence as exceptional -- the crown of evolution. The minimum sufficient rationality thesis inverts this: we are the dumbest species capable of creating civilization. Our cognitive hardware has remained essentially unchanged for 300,000 years. We hold 4-7 items in working memory, maintain roughly 150 stable social relationships, and make systematically irrational decisions documented by decades of behavioral economics. These are not bugs in an otherwise powerful system -- they are the specifications of a system operating near its minimum viable threshold.

The evidence is in the gap between individual cognition and collective achievement. No individual human can multiply large numbers without external aids, intuitively handle probability, or comprehend global-scale systems. Yet collectively we have built quantum computers and space stations. This paradox resolves when we recognize that cultural evolution, not individual intelligence, does the heavy lifting. We needed just enough -- language for abstract ideas, social learning for faithful transmission, basic causal reasoning, symbolic thought, and sufficient working memory for multi-step processes -- to ignite cultural accumulation. Once lit, that fire burned independently of further biological change.

The strategic implication is that waiting for biological evolution to make us smarter is not an option. Our cognitive hardware is what it is. The only path forward is building external systems -- collective intelligence architectures -- that transcend individual limitations the same way writing transcended individual memory.

---

Relevant Notes:
- [[civilization was built on the false assumption that humans are rational individuals]] -- the minimum sufficient rationality thesis explains WHY this assumption was false: we were never rational, just barely rational enough
- [[the scientific method is a scaffold compensating for human irrationality not a product of rationality]] -- the scientific method is the paradigmatic example of building external scaffolding atop minimum viable cognition
- [[intelligence is a property of networks not individuals]] -- if individual intelligence is minimal, then network-level intelligence is not just preferable but structurally necessary
- [[minimum sufficient rationality sparked cultural evolution but cannot sustain civilization alone]] -- the axiom version: minimum rationality sparked the process but cannot manage what it built

Topics:
- [[livingip overview]]
- [[civilizational foundations]]