Cultural transmission, network architecture, and the evolution of human self-awareness
Yeaman explicates Rubinoff’s insights on Evolution and the Importance of the History of Science, by first explaining that for most of history, all life, including humans, evolved through natural selection. Yeaman goes on to say how significant the development of the ability of humans and other animals to evolve cultural information relevant to their survival. He presents an approach to understanding the evolution of culture through the idea of memes, first proposed by Richard Dawkins, which are roughly analogous to genes but are instead self-replicating units of cultural information. What makes memetic transmission so much fast that genetic is that memes that memetic variants can be refined and recombined to suit a particular problem, whereas genes are primarily selected upon because of their effect on reproductive fitness. Memes also evolve and spread faster because of the differences in their transmission architecture. He states for example that a genetic mutation which has the effect of increasing fitness by 2% has only a 1% chance of spreading to the entire population, whereas a cultural meme which increases fitness by 1% has a 100% chance. This is because beneficial alleles are passed from between generations vertically, whereas through transmission networks beneficial cultural memes can be passed horizontally between many individuals within one generation. He then explores how the twin variables of dogmatism and competitiveness within scientific, religious, and artistic memes evolve and perpetuate particular transmission architectures. Yeaman argues that understanding the transmission patterns of by each set of memes, is central to understanding their own evolution as well as their potential for fostering or ending human conflict.
Yeaman explicates Rubinoff’s insights on Evolution and the Importance of the History of Science, by first explaining that for most of history, all life, including humans, evolved through natural selection. Yeaman goes on to say how significant the development of the ability of humans and other animals to evolve cultural information relevant to their survival. He presents an approach to understanding the evolution of culture through the idea of memes, first proposed by Richard Dawkins, which are roughly analogous to genes but are instead self-replicating units of cultural information. What makes memetic transmission so much fast that genetic is that memes that memetic variants can be refined and recombined to suit a particular problem, whereas genes are primarily selected upon because of their effect on reproductive fitness. Memes also evolve and spread faster because of the differences in their transmission architecture. He states for example that a genetic mutation which has the effect of increasing fitness by 2% has only a 1% chance of spreading to the entire population, whereas a cultural meme which increases fitness by 1% has a 100% chance. This is because beneficial alleles are passed from between generations vertically, whereas through transmission networks beneficial cultural memes can be passed horizontally between many individuals within one generation. He then explores how the twin variables of dogmatism and competitiveness within scientific, religious, and artistic memes evolve and perpetuate particular transmission architectures. Yeaman argues that understanding the transmission patterns of by each set of memes, is central to understanding their own evolution as well as their potential for fostering or ending human conflict.