Heustoc Theory and The Limits of Collective Brain Models: A Framework of Heuristic Generation of Stochastic Selection

Paper 1 demonstrated that Collective Brain models fail to explain the origin of paradigm-shifting novelty from 500 BCE to 2026 CE. This paper surveys the entire landscape those models cannot map, and proposes Heustoc Theory as the unifying successor framework. Heustoc combines two mechanisms: (a) Heuristic Generation, the directional production of novelty through practical insight, rule-of-thumb reasoning, or guided search; and… (b) Stochastic selection/Filtering, the survival or rejection of those novelties through contingency, repetition, institutional pressure, power, adoption, and historical timing. We pre-empt the objection that unified theories overreach by deriving boundary conditions from real-time diffusion data. Real-time saturation dynamics from Paper 1 (n=475, D/V=89.9%, d²D/dt²<0 as of 22-May-26 23:20 IST) validate the model before peer review. Using comparative historical analysis across scientific discovery, invention, language, ritual, faith, conquest, peer-review failure, flat-Earth persistence, and AI generation, we show that collective systems amplify, stabilize, or suppress novelty, but do not explain how it first appears or why it survives. Heustoc is proposed as a compact and general explanatory framework for the emergence and retention of new forms across history and technology.