The Macro-16 Framework

The markers of a divergens-leaning nation-state and its population. Each marker represents an observable dimension of divergence from the traditional Homo sapiens cognitive-social model.

Domain I — Institutional Adaptivity

1. Cognitive Meritocracy:
Extent to which institutions reward analytical and creative intelligence rather than conformity or hierarchy.

2. Systemic Plasticity:
Capacity of national, legal, or bureaucratic systems to self-revise and integrate new paradigms without collapse.

3. Educational Divergence:
Shift from rote instruction toward individualized, inquiry-driven, and neurodiversity-inclusive education models.

Domain II — Cognitive Ecology

4. Technological Symbiosis:
Degree of integration between human cognition and digital systems (AI, networks, algorithms) in daily life.

5. Conceptual Complexity:
Prevalence of abstract, cross-disciplinary, and meta-systemic thinking within public and elite discourse.

6. Temporal Orientation:
Collective cognitive focus—whether oriented toward innovation and futurity (divergent) or tradition and continuity (sapiens).

Domain III — Social-Emotional Architecture

7. Empathic Recalibration:
Shifts in empathic style from affective imitation to cognitive and systems-level empathy.

8. Identity Fluidity:
Acceptance of multiple, non-fixed identities (gender, cultural, ideological) as psychologically legitimate.

9. Communal Modularity:
Replacement of geographic or familial community with networked, interest-based, and digital tribes.

Domain IV — Moral-Spiritual Noetics

10. Metaphysical Pluralism:
Coexistence of multiple truth systems and tolerance for cognitive dissonance in moral or religious belief.

Ethical Individualism:
Moral reasoning rooted in self-authored conscience rather than inherited authority or external dogma.

12. Transcendent Substitution:
Migration of religious impulse into secular domains—science, activism, art, technology, or ideology.

Domain V — Information Ecology

13. Cognitive Saturation:
The intensity of informational exposure and its effect on perception, attention, and sense-making.

14. Narrative Fragmentation:
Decline of shared meta-narratives in favor of individualized or algorithmically curated realities.

15. Memetic Acceleration:
Speed and volatility of idea propagation, shaping social evolution faster than institutions can adapt.

Domain VI — Human Reproduction and Kinship Architecture

16. Kinship Reconfiguration:
Transformation of national norms, institutions, and demographic patterns surrounding reproduction, family formation, and partnership structure.

APA-7 Bibliography Mapped to the Canonical Macro-16 Framework

APA-7 Bibliography Mapped to the Canonical Macro-16 Framework

DOMAIN I — INSTITUTIONAL ADAPTIVITY

Cognitive Meritocracy

Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J.-C. (1990). Reproduction in education, society and culture. Sage.
Autor, D., Katz, L., & Kearney, M. (2008). Trends in U.S. wage inequality: Revising the revisionists. Review of Economics and Statistics, 90(2), 300–323. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest.90.2.300
Castells, M. (2010). The rise of the network society (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.

Systemic Plasticity

Ostrom, E. (2010). Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change. Global Environmental Change, 20(4), 550–557. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2010.07.004
Scharpf, F. W. (1997). Games real actors play: Actor-centered institutionalism in policy research. Westview Press.

Educational Divergence

Darling-Hammond, L., Flook, L., Cook-Harvey, C., Barron, B., & Osher, D. (2020). Implications for educational practice of the science of learning and development. Applied Developmental Science, 24(2), 97–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2018.1537791
Schleicher, A. (2018). World class: How to build a 21st-century school system. OECD Publishing.

DOMAIN II — COGNITIVE ECOLOGY

Technological Symbiosis

Clark, A. (2003). Natural-born cyborgs: Minds, technologies, and the future of human intelligence. Oxford University Press.
Hoff, K., & Stiglitz, J. (2016). Striving for balance in economics: Towards a theory of the social mind. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 126(B), 25–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2016.06.005

Conceptual Complexity

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. HarperCollins.
Snow, C. P. (1959/2012). The two cultures. Cambridge University Press.

Temporal Orientation

Inglehart, R., & Baker, W. (2000). Modernization, cultural change, and the persistence of traditional values. American Sociological Review, 65(1), 19–51. https://doi.org/10.2307/2657288
Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.

DOMAIN III — SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL ARCHITECTURE

Empathic Recalibration

Decety, J., & Meyer, M. (2008). From emotion resonance to empathic understanding: A social cognitive neuroscience view. Biological Sciences, 363(1498), 2339–2346. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0012
Shamay-Tsoory, S. G. (2011). The neural bases for empathy. The Neuroscientist, 17(1), 18–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858410379268

Identity Fluidity

Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Stanford University Press.
Taylor, C. (1994). The politics of recognition. In A. Gutmann (Ed.), Multiculturalism (pp. 25–74). Princeton University Press.

Communal Modularity

Wellman, B. (2001). Physical place and cyberplace: The rise of personalized networking. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 25(2), 227–252. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.00309
Rainie, L., & Wellman, B. (2012). Networked: The new social operating system. MIT Press.

DOMAIN IV — MORAL-SPIRITUAL NOETICS

Metaphysical Pluralism

Berger, P. L. (2014). The many altars of modernity: Toward a paradigm for religion in a pluralist age. De Gruyter.
Taylor, C. (2007). A secular age. Harvard University Press.

Ethical Individualism

Haidt, J. (2012). The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. Pantheon.
Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (2019). Principles of biomedical ethics (8th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Transcendent Substitution

Durkheim, E. (1912/1995). The elementary forms of religious life (K. E. Fields, Trans.). Free Press.
Norenzayan, A. (2013). Big gods: How religion transformed cooperation and conflict. Princeton University Press.

DOMAIN V — INFORMATION ECOLOGY

Cognitive Saturation

Carr, N. (2010). The shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains. W. W. Norton.
Eysenbach, G. (2008). Credibility of health information and digital media. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 10(3), e23. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.987

Narrative Fragmentation

Benkler, Y. (2006). The wealth of networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom. Yale University Press.
Sunstein, C. R. (2017). #Republic: Divided democracy in the age of social media. Princeton University Press.

Memetic Acceleration

Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online. Science, 359(6380), 1146–1151. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap9559
Shifman, L. (2013). Memes in a digital world: Reconciling with a conceptual troublemaker. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 18(3), 362–377. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12013

DOMAIN VI — HUMAN REPRODUCTION & KINSHIP ARCHITECTURE

Kinship Reconfiguration

Coontz, S. (2005). Marriage, a history: From obedience to intimacy, or how love conquered marriage. Viking.
Lesthaeghe, R. (2010). The unfolding story of the second demographic transition. Population and Development Review, 36(2), 211–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2010.00328.x
Giddens, A. (1992). The transformation of intimacy: Sexuality, love and eroticism in modern societies. Stanford University Press.