Category: Uncategorized

SELF-REFERENTIAL. “Science itself is a cumulative cultural evolutionary process.’” (Nature contemplating herself). http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

DRIVERS. “Demographically, the threefold increase in the world population and increased global mobility in the past century should also have accelerated cumulative culture.” (Or its demise). http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

SPEED OF ACCUMULATION. “Ideas regarding the origin of cumulative culture can inform thinking about factors that might affect recent and ongoing cumulative cultural evolution. The invention of writing, followed by digital media, surely greatly increased the fidelity of social learning and, potentially, the speed of cumulative culture.” http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

CULTURAL EVOLUTION of complexity that comes anywhere close to the extraordinary biological complexity we see in nature might include advanced mathematics, scientific enquiry, some music, writing and language, and the internet. But in truth, none of these compares to layered sophistication of the merest bristle on the nose of a flea. These types of complexity are not comparable, they are simply very different. Complexity should not even be in the formula. View in LinkedIn

ACCUMULATION. “However, genetic evolution is clearly also cumulative, involving the gradual accumulation of beneficial genetic modifications over time to produce complex adaptations, such as eyes or wings. Human cumulative cultural evolution bears a clear parallel with this form of cumulative genetic evolution. Indeed, the gradual accumulation of cultural innovations results in complex cultural adaptations, such as telescopes or airplanes, that resemble and rival complex genetic adaptations.” http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

MULTIFUNCTIONAL. "Augmented reality device turns your arm into a keyboard." https://lnkd.in/dtJ_uVc View in LinkedIn

CUMULATIVE OR EVOLVING? “Is “cumulative culture” synonymous with “cultural evolution”? In principle, evolutionary change can be noncumulative, involving changes in trait frequencies over time such as occurs with genetic drift or local adaptive changes in gene frequencies. In this sense, nonhuman, noncumulative cultural change can justifiably be called cultural evolution.” http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

"WORD LENS Translates Words Inside of Images. Yes Really. Ever been confused at a restaurant in a foreign country and wish you could just scan your menu with your iPhone and get an instant translation? Well as of today you are one step closer thanks to Word Lens from QuestVisual. “It tries to find out what the letters are and then looks in the dictionary. Then it draws the words back on the screen in translation.” https://lnkd.in/dk9hhKg View in LinkedIn

FITNESS INCREASE. “Models of the evolution of culture show that cumulative culture is particularly effective at increasing mean population fitness beyond the population fitness of noncumulative cultural species.” http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn