Essay Argues Culture Is a Living Force—and AI Code May Be Life's Third Phase
In an essay featured in The Guardian on 20 September 2026, Jonathan Loh, an honorary fellow at the University of Sussex, posits that human culture represents a legitimate form of life rather than merely a biological offshoot. He references the monks of Mount Athos, who have maintained their office since AD 963, as a testament to lasting traditions. Loh draws parallels between cultural transmission and genetic information, highlighting that chimpanzees demonstrate culture through behaviors learned from others. He asserts that approximately 2.6 million years ago, culture emerged as a pivotal factor in hominin evolution, fostering innovations and the advent of language, which improved the sharing of knowledge. Loh concludes by suggesting that life has progressed through biological and cultural stages, with machines possibly ushering in a third.
Key facts
- Jonathan Loh is an honorary fellow at the University of Sussex's School of Life Sciences
- The essay was published by The Guardian on 20 September 2026
- Monks on Mount Athos in northern Greece have sung the same office for over 1,000 years, traced to Athanasios the Athonite in AD 963
- Loh argues culture is literally alive because it encodes, processes and transmits information like biological organisms
- Chimpanzee populations in west Africa show distinct cultural behaviours such as nut-cracking, termite-fishing and moss-sponging
- Culture began overtaking genes as the primary driver of hominin evolution around 2.6 million years ago
- Language is described as the key breakthrough enabling high-fidelity transmission of cultural knowledge
- Loh proposes machines writing their own code may represent a third phase of life and evolution
Entities
Artists
- Jonathan Loh
- Athanasios the Athonite
- Mozart
- Madonna
- Shakespeare
- Sartre
- Michael Tomasello
- Tracey Camilleri
- Samantha Rockey
- Robin Dunbar
- Richard Dawkins
- Elia Barbieri
Institutions
- The Guardian
- University of Sussex
- School of Life Sciences
- Bodley Head
- Harvard
- Penguin
- Oxford
Locations
- Mount Athos
- Greece
- West Africa
- St Peter's Basilica
- Taj Mahal
- Japan