How much of human creativity comes from remaking older patterns?

[we6jbo]

Hello everyone. I was thinking about how there seem to be repeated patterns in human history and I was wondering how much of human creativity comes from copying and remaking older patterns.

For example a song can remind people of an older song because the rhythm or feeling or structure is similar but it is still a new song. A religious story can also seem to use older story patterns in a new setting. A tool can be an improved version of an older tool. Now with AI it seems like humans have made systems that can take older language patterns and remake them into new answers.

I am not trying to argue a fixed opinion. I am more trying to understand the idea. Are humans usually creating something completely new or are we usually reshaping older patterns in new ways?

I am coming at this mostly from an inquisitive and comparative perspective. I am interested in religious history but also in science technology music and human nature. Hope this makes sense. Thanks.

 

[iBrian]

Adaptation of external knowledge to better accommodate internal cultural values has long been a pattern in history. Ancient Greek culture, from which much of the west directly connects with - either directly or through the Roman Empire that promoted it - was heavily influenced by the Near East.

Egyptian art influenced early Greek styles to become more realistic, and the Greek use of Phoenician script to create the alphabet is on record. In terms of beliefs and mythologies, much of this came from the east to the Greek world where it was adapted.

And even in the Greek world itself, major ideas often filtered in from the boundaries: philosophy and scientific thought all originated in the Ionian cities of Asia Minor/Turkey before finding a home in Athens.