Lacking a sticky solution

I was recently reading a bbc news item describing an orb spinner spider trapped in amber 115-121 million years ago (the lower Cretaceous period). The webs of the orb spinner have a combination of strong, rigid silk and weaker, but more stretchy silk. This combination is ideal for netting fast moving insect prey. The authors emphasize the evolutionary success of this adaptation. This ancient specimen's descendants are still spinning 121 million years later, and are represented by more than 2800 separate species.

It made me think about gene-based evolution and just how sticky (!) it can be. Once an adaptation is in the genome, it is there for the duration.

What about cultural adaptations? Generally speaking we don't talk of cultural adaptations being inherited directly via our genes. Each cultural adaptation must be passed from generation to generation through schooling. This provides much more scope and flexibility for adaptation but comes at a cost: each new generation runs the risk of missing out on beneficial schooling.

Compared to spiders, humans lack a sticky solution to guarantee that their most important adaptations are passed on.