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Human Cultural Transformation Triggered by Dense Populations

Posted by plektix in Culture, Emergence, Evolution, Society on October 12th, 2009 | View Comments

Biologically,modern humans first appeared 160,000 to 200,000 years ago. But the transition to complex human societies, with art, music, advanced tools, occurred a good deal more recently, and moreover, occured at different times in different parts of the world. An article in June’s Science magazine (see a less technical write-up here) argues, based on historical evidence and computer simulations, that in each case the transition was triggered once the population density had reached a critical threshold. At this threshold, there is sufficient interaction to allow for complex ideas to be passed down through generations, enabling rapid cultural evolution.

This highlights an interesting evolutionary tension: as I’ve written before, evolutionary theory tells us that cooperative behaviors are more likely to evolve (biologically speaking) in populations that are dispersed over space rather than densely packed. But I’m beginning to think that cultural evolution may be different enough from biological evolution to require its own body of theory.

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Alex Golubev

We do need a body of theory for cultural/human/idea evolution. More importantly we need people to understand that this is needed. Just like we needed density of population to have people “on the same page” in terms of knowledge, communication, cooperation to create culture and discourse of ideas (instead of learning from own mistakes). Now we need to first accept that ideas are more important than people (eek). can and should we make this leap?

Ok, i’ll go ahead and argue that we have to make the leap. the only other option is to be trapped in unfair incentive land, where bad ideas dominate good ones due to “the evolutionary process proceeds faster than the unfolding of negative consequences” (as you pointed out earlier). So we go through bubbles of growth followed by systemically dangerous contractions. Throw fiat money + reserve banking in that potentially bad idea category. Don’t we have to safeguard the system first?

Is it possible to achieve the complexity necessary to understand what is needed, yet unwind historical path dependencies that brought us here? i sure hope so. But i’m sure the cultural emergence you mention had to fight violence, anarchy, and merlins to come into existance as well.

Another aspect is that these questions of civilization’s destiny are the strong form of optimism. The weak form is that a single agent who understands the importance of this will improve the quality of his/her life without necessarily affecting humanity. the issue of kids is really biological if you ask me. Some pass on blood (wait, do we?) and some – ideas.

(BTW does the density of settlements predict emergence of states? etc…)
plektix

Saying that “ideas are more important than people” seems like a framing error, because each is dependent on the other for its existence. Human society is the environment within which ideas evolve. And yet it is only through idea evolution that society progresses. So ideas and society are bound to each other in a coevolutionary process.

To the extent that we have any control over this coevolutionary process (e.g. through regulations, institutions, and arguments), the first priority is to force the potential long-term consequences of ideas to influence their short-term evolutionary success. But I think our capacity to do this is limited. As I mentioned above, we humans are the environment within which ideas evolve, and we humans have always been a short-sighted bunch.
Alex Golubev

i may have been unclear. I didn’t mean that any/all ideas are important than all people. more that we can have collateral damage. ideas are not dependent on all people that live right now understanding and accepting them. They will survive as long as they get passed on. it is not necessary to convince everyone.
Alex Golubev

Sorry, clicked “post” too early. We are a short sighted bunch and it definitely has something to do with survivability. Right now performance bonuses are judged and awarded on a much shorter time frame thatn the interests of the stakeholders. We need LONGER vesting periods that 1 year. 5 years would do wonders and most vesting periods ARE that long. This is particularly critical the more leveraged the instititutions are, whether it’s outright OPM or high fixed costs. The concepts themselves are quite simple and a handful can be figured out very easily which would completely change the world. The hard part is in changing the current system. This is where i really struggle
plektix

Unfortunately, as we live in a democracy, ideas do need to gather a critical amount of support in order to become implemented. Compound this with the fact that our idea evolution process is disproportionally influenced by those who are getting rich off the status quo, and you begin to get a sense of the uphill battle facing good ideas like longer vesting periods.
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Alex Golubev

democracy presents an illusion of choice and power for us little guys. the consequences aren’t purely pessimistic however. The same principles that people in power use to manipulate perceptions of the masses can be used by people trying to create change. That’s why i say that ideas are more important. The status quo folks aren’t up to speed with the abilities of the internet to make things viral. Obama leveraged the internet just a little bit and created a feeding frenzy for hope. good ideas outweight masses of SIMPLER humans whether we like it or not. this is why we have laws to prevent predatory practices…fda…etc… but unfortunately these well intentioned regulations cannot prevent evolution, so all these measures MAY prevent the ability of predators, but don’t reduce the supply of prey. SO, yeah, of course we need a medium for the ideas, but convincing anyone in good faith on sound logic is not a requirement.

SO, the implications are that we need to accept that an idea can easily take advantage of us.