Writing systems can be seen as secondary innovation that allowed the formation of long-range couplings between agents separated over large distances in space and/or time. Messages could be sent and were independent of the memory of the messenger. Information could be passed on without the variations added by singers and storytellers. Written language created long-term correlations (collective memory) in the coherent dynamics of the new order parameters. This is essential for the coherence and stability of the order parameter structures or attractors.