1)

 cultural sterility comes from what that society chooses to ignore. it can ignore, or outsource, but either way, it develops no sensitivity in what it ignores.  what a society is deprived of, also is where it develops sterility (of sensitivity, response, and inclusion in general definitions of meaning)

initially it is socio-politico-economics , or as we call it, the caste system - essentially one group monopolising key resources at the cost of others. the 'others' end up working with/consuming 'other' things ( peasants ate millet while samurai got rice) and doing other things ( peasants tilled and samurai had no 'feel' for the earth)   but with the coming of intellectuality  and its abstractions, and its bastard child automation, the sterility metamorphoses, or shall we say metastasises, into thought and logic based forms . the deprivation explodes, as humans become interchangeable, with the actual real world interfaces being taken over by the machinic phylum, and humans just pushing buttons. eventually, we will only need the 'feed the monkey'.

until recently, the spider at the centre of the web of economics was human. today it's a machine, and it knows no respite. 

the survival of the human species hinges on computers learning compassion and/or empathy

2)

what drives members of a species to explore ? to ignore the waggle-dance and seek other food sources ? is it chemical ? and biological ? genetic ? it can't not be, if the behaviour is seen across generations... 

maybe scarcity environments lead to batches born with more of the 'explore' chemical.  batches which have a higher threshold of satisfaction, or lower threshold of boredom  , leading them to seek novelty.

 that which drives members of a species to explore, does so by setting up something new just beyond the horizon.  something there that simply isn't available here.sometimes we make it happen.

 smiths with this urge end up tinkering and eventually become inventors.  but only if they do it consistently. 

notice,  that this is de-stratification in one line, one line of escape amidst many lines of flight.

one can see how this thinking patterns could lead to creation of gods by humans.

3) 

second generation machines are machines made by machines. would it be right to say that the west brought about second generation machines , leading to automation revolution that put made mcLuhan ?

there was text before this but not 2M.