A new study suggests that advanced civilizations may have existed in the distant past, but left no trace of their existence. The study, which uses a mathematical model of cultural evolution, shows that the probability of detecting an ancient civilization is very low, even if they were widespread and long-lasting. The study challenges the assumption that we are the first or only intelligent species in the universe. #AncientCivilizations #CulturalEvolution #CosmicHistory

https://phys.org/news/2023-09-advanced-civilizations.html?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=HariTulsidas%2Fmagazine%2FMind+and+Matter

In rich countries, there is no excuse for having a system in which basic human needs, such as food & accommodation, are not easily accessible to all (no excuse!)

The reason why basic human needs are not easily accessible to all isn't a reason at all. It's greed!

#psychology #ethics #CulturalEvolution #politics #economics

#originoflife #informationtheory #ComplexSystems #CollectiveBehavior #evolutionarydynamics #biogels #informationtheory #philosophy #philosophyofscience #philosophyofmaths #qotojournal #biology #evolution #economy #incomedistribution #anthropology #culturalevolution #archeology#originoflife #informationtheory #ComplexSystems #CollectiveBehavior #evolutionarydynamics #biogels #informationtheory #philosophy #philosophyofscience #philosophyofmaths #qotojournal #biology #evolution #economy #incomedistribution #anthropology #culturalevolution #archeology #networkscience #complexnetworks

I am presently reading “Spatial Networks” by Marc Barthelemy. I am interested in how spatial networks differ from non-spatial ones. For a road network, measures like degree don’t work because an intersection is constrained by the number of roads that it can intersect. This is peculiar to roads but I am wondering what constraints a distance metric in general can impose on a network. Would a network including statistical or information distance be considered a spatial network? I realize that linear distance along a road is not a true distance as it doesn’t always fit the triangle inequality. I am wondering if a ratio of Euclidean distance to linear distance would somehow fix things. Does anyone care to comment?

Context #ClimateChange

It's OK for you, you'll be fine. Sure, your natural systems are taking a beating, but, once the dust settles, you'll go on growing & evolving for billions of years to come.

It's the little people that should be concerned & doing their best to mitigate their polluting activities. If they did l'm sure they'd be more secure.

What is the "you"

#PopQuiz #CommonSense #CulturalEvolution #climate #psychology

#originoflife #informationtheory #ComplexSystems #CollectiveBehavior #evolutionarydynamics #biogels #informationtheory #philosophy #philosophyofscience #philosophyofmaths #qotojournal #biology #evolution #economy #incomedistribution #anthropology #culturalevolution #archeology

https://wjbeaver.wixsite.com/mysite/post/mixed-species-foraging-in-birds

#originoflife #informationtheory #ComplexSystems #CollectiveBehavior #evolutionarydynamics #biogels #informationtheory #philosophy #philosophyofscience #philosophyofmaths #qotojournal #biology #evolution #economy #incomedistribution #anthropology #culturalevolution #archeology

https://wjbeaver.wixsite.com/mysite/post/mound-builders-of-ohio-part-1

#originoflife #informationtheory #ComplexSystems #CollectiveBehavior #evolutionarydynamics #biogels #informationtheory #philosophy #philosophyofscience #philosophyofmaths #qotojournal #biology #evolution #economy #incomedistribution #anthropology #culturalevolution #archeology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBkFu1g5PlE

#originoflife #informationtheory #ComplexSystems #CollectiveBehavior #evolutionarydynamics #biogels #informationtheory #philosophy #philosophyofscience #philosophyofmaths #qotojournal #biology #evolution #economy #incomedistribution #anthropology #culturalevolution #archeology

“History is a pack of tricks we play on the dead” Voltaire

Tobler’s First Law of Geography is: “… everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.” In spatial statistics this is formalized in the notion of correlation, near objects in space are more correlated than far objects. This applies to time also, near events in time are more correlated than distant events in time. Using Steven Jay Gould’s famous “tape of Evolution” thought experiment for human history, rewind the tape back a week and then replay history. Would we notice much difference? Rewind it a thousand years? We might notice a difference. certain things correlate further back in time than others. Evolution gives us correlations going back billions of years. Species millions of years. Human cultures are much shorter, “Western Culture” as a global culture only goes back a few hundred years and for the most part was violently imposed upon the world. Archeology has returned to listening to the stories of remaining native peoples and in North America it has been shown that these peoples are direct ancestors to the peoples of the great pueblos of the southwest and the mound builders of the eastern woodlands. The concerns, participation, support, and stories of native people are now an important part of archeology. One critique of ethnographic studies is that it is difficult to tell just how far back current beliefs, stories, and practices can go, the past is a foreign country even to those whose ancestors lived it. This is a reasonable critique. It is hard for a society that has downloaded its knowledge first into writing and now onto silicon, to understand passing cultural knowledge strictly through memory. Any trial lawyer will tell you about how fallible human memory is yet cultures survived and thrived without writing. Just how was this accomplished?

#originoflife #informationtheory #ComplexSystems #CollectiveBehavior #evolutionarydynamics #biogels #informationtheory #philosophy #philosophyofscience #philosophyofmaths #qotojournal #biology #evolution #economy #incomedistribution #anthropology #culturalevolution

Stephen Jay Gould once stated that human cultural evolution is Lamarkian rather than Darwinian. Lamarkian can be a trigger word for some biologists so I will refrain from defending it. There are differences. Cultural transmission is much different than genetic transmission and the method of transmission is different, not discrete like genes, there is no evidence of memes like Dawkins has suggested. In addition, there are no lineages as such. Darwin had no idea of transmission either. Dawkins’s attempt at memes is based on the fact that humans are biological entities subject to Darwinian evolution and culture is a human phenotype and thus is subject to Darwinian evolution. This idea has been accepted and rejected at different times by the social sciences, mainly because of the stigma of Social Darwinism and the failure of Darwinian Evolution to provide coherent answers. Yet, culture is still a biological artifact, like an ant hill is a biological artifact so somehow this conceptual gap needs to be closed.

Lewens, Tim. “Cultural Evolution.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward N. Zalta. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, 2020. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/evolution-cultural/.

Let’s face it: With every passing year some new technological advancement reminds us of the fact that human obsolescence is inevitable.

All hail the Pretty Gnostic Machine. All hail the coming uber integration of human and machine!

#gnosticism #demiurge #CulturalEvolution #teleology #JohannaSeibt #ProcessPhilosophy #Videodrome #PrettyGnosticMachine

Update: O, how could I forget #TeilhardDeChardin

His concept of #OmegaPoint partly inspired my Pretty Gnostic twist on #apocatastasis

5/5

The CES has #funding available!

Introducing the new suite of ACE grants (Advancing #CulturalEvolution)

Apply for:
* Early Career Research Grants
(https://forms.gle/BLHYXbHFZzFK6ikz8)
* Outreach Awards (https://forms.gle/9DjFHXLoLuyUa1FQA)
* Building Research Capacity Awards (https://forms.gle/y7tfGHkmCELjpDpo6)

Closing date 10th March.

This is the first time these are awarded but they will run yearly for the next 5 years, so even if now is not the time, keep them in mind!

More info here:
https://culturalevolutionsociety.org/story/Advancing_Cultural_Evolution_%2528ACE%2529_Grants

I was recently on the @sfiscience #Complexity Podcast with C Thi Nguyen. We had a bonkers far-reaching conversation about selection, incentives, institutions and #CulturalEvolution. Good times. https://complexity.simplecast.com/episodes/101

Check out these post-doc opportunities in the mechanisms of social behavior group (at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm), led by https://twitter.com/B_Lindstroem

https://ki.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:576453/
#jobs #cognition #sociallearning #computationalmodelling #culturalevolution

Who Are the Cultural Evolutionists? Thoughtful post by Cody Moser. https://culturologies.substack.com/p/who-are-the-cultural-evolutionists #culturalevolution

The #culturalevolution #humanevolution and related people on here. Who am I missing? Please reply and retoot:

@rlmcelreath
@simon
@epower
@psmaldino
@ct_bergstrom
@jplotkin
@al_cibiades
@rebeccasear
@Drand
@wgervais
@simonreader
@zefferman
@juemos
@CTennie
@debruine
@fionajordan
@RachelSpicer
@willismonroe
@incertaesedis
@HyperadaptHyrax
@joseph_bulbulia
@DorsaAmir
@iyadrahwan
@manvir
@anthrolog
@PatrickESavage
@scottclaessens
@ehud
@celestekidd
@mcxfrank
@drghirlanda
@rachelaharrison

1/2

RT @aucksAdventures
Kang-Suk Byun leads one of the most ambitious #CulturalEvolution experiments: 4 signers of different #signlanguages live together for 3 weeks, their first and last meeting is a colour naming communication game. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2022.1024340 with @Connie_de_Vos, Zeshan & Levinson

Perhaps interested in "What cognitive mechanisms enable humans to learn complex languages?"

Then listen to @Anna_Jon_And
when she presents her research Monday next week!

On Zoom or Live at @malardalen_uni
https://mdu.se/kalender/2022/december/operationalizing-usage-based-learning-a-cognitive-architecture-approach #culturalevolution #language

Folks, what are the main hashtags academics are monitoring on here? Particularly hashtags in #psychology #economics #evolution #culturalevolution But throw anything at me!

Hi everyone, I'm Michael! I'm primarily on #Twitter, but I'll try to cross-post here. Want to join the conversations with those who prefer Mastodon.

I'm a #professor at the #LSE.

My research focuses on human #evolution & #culturalevolution, and #behavioralscience, and #publicpolicy applications. Basically why #humans are different to other animals, how our #psychology and societies evolve and how we can use that to make the world better. #introductions #science

We are told that #sustainability depends on us (#recycle, #reduce heat, cut travel), but also that individual contributions are negligible.
How can sustainable behaviours and institutions spread for greatest impact?
Rebecca Koomen, @twaring and Vanessa Weinberger introduce the Sustainability Working Group of the #CulturalEvolution Society. It aims to accelerate the spread of behaviours that not only promote #sustainability at an individual level, but also encourage new levels of #cooperation...