Evolution of Freedom
Part I: Evolution of cooperation - Chapter 7
CULTURAL EVOLUTION
Cultural evolution allows us to better adapt to our environment. Culture, in and of itself, is an adaptation to our environment. The stories we tell, the morals we espouse and the customs we engage in live on because they improve our chances of survival. When the environment changes, we can expect that the culture will also change to better suit the new environment.
What makes cultural evolution so powerful is that institutional memory can retain the knowledge attained by previous generations, allowing each new generation to build on the cumulative accomplishments of the past. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. This creates a vast treasure trove of information that is embedded in our community and our institutions.
By seamlessly integrating cultural evolution into its framework, the theory of evolution can now explain virtually all human phenomena. What is shared by biological evolution and cultural evolution is the three-step algorithm of Universal Darwinism: the variation, selection and reproduction of information. This simple formula can explain all design in the universe. The algorithm states that:
What makes cultural evolution so powerful is that institutional memory can retain the knowledge attained by previous generations, allowing each new generation to build on the cumulative accomplishments of the past. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. This creates a vast treasure trove of information that is embedded in our community and our institutions.
By seamlessly integrating cultural evolution into its framework, the theory of evolution can now explain virtually all human phenomena. What is shared by biological evolution and cultural evolution is the three-step algorithm of Universal Darwinism: the variation, selection and reproduction of information. This simple formula can explain all design in the universe. The algorithm states that:
1) if there is variation of information, and
2) if there is a process of selection between the varieties of information, and
3) if there is replication of the selected information, then design will appear out of nowhere even without a designer.
2) if there is a process of selection between the varieties of information, and
3) if there is replication of the selected information, then design will appear out of nowhere even without a designer.
Most of us are familiar with how this algorithm works in biology. When a genetic mutation endows an offspring with, say, slightly better eyesight (variation) and that better eyesight allows the individual to better avoid predators and hunt for food (selection) in its particular environment, it is more likely to have a greater number of offspring than other individuals in the population (reproduction). Over time individuals with the genes for better eyesight will take over the population. The physical design for better eyesight appears without a designer.
Compare this to a joke, which is a great example of how cultural evolution works in our everyday lives. If a joke generates laughter, it will be copied and told over and over again. Each teller varies the joke a little bit. Some manage to improve on the joke, while others bungle the punchline. Only the versions that generate laughter will be copied and retold by others. Laughter serves as the selection process of which jokes spread and which don’t. This same principle applies to everything humans create. Successful versions are copied and varied, while failed examples are quickly forgotten.
Cultural evolution is also called the dual inheritance theory, since, unlike all other animals, humans now have two ways to transmit vital information from one generation to the next. The dual inheritance theory uses genes as an analogy for the way cultural information is passed on from person to person. A meme, just like a gene, is a small unit of information–an idea, symbol or practice–transmitted by human culture almost like a virus. As we pass on these memes, new variations of them appear, and various selection processes continue to shape them exactly the way evolution shapes populations.
The language used to describe how culture shapes the information contained in memes borrows heavily from biology. Successful memes are said to “reproduce” more easily, while unsuccessful ones tend to go “extinct.” Some claim that memes have an actual biological origin, speculating that they are physically encoded into the synapses of our brains.
Practically everything we humans create can be seen as a meme or a collection of memes, or memeplexes: the clothes we wear, the music we listen to and the social customs we engage in. Our lives are filled with different versions of these memes, and the various selection pressures present in our culture constantly shape them. If you look back only a few years, let alone decades, you can see how the way we dress, our taste in music and our social customs have evolved.
Technologies offer an even more vivid example of this process because, as in biological evolution, the laws of nature select which versions will be copied. When ancient cultures developed boats, for example, the sea acted as a powerful selection mechanism for which designs would be copied and which ended up at the bottom of the sea.
The same applies to airplanes: gravity will destroy all bad designs in their infancy. The designs that survive are copied and then incrementally improved in the hopes that they will provide an advantage compared with the original. No design can escape the necessary dialogue with the laws of nature, which ultimately select the best designs from all the variations.
When biological evolution solves problems, it doesn’t have a direction, a purpose or a designer. It is merely an adaptation to a specific environment. But when humans solve problems and design objects, we have foresight and a specific end goal in mind. This makes the process of cultural evolution conscious. It also makes it many times faster than what we find in nature.
Nature has developed powered flight at least four separate times, first with insects around 350 million years ago, then with pterosaurs 230 million years ago, with birds 165 million years ago and finally with bats around 60 million years ago. Where it took nature some 3.5 billion years to develop the ability to fly, once humans were able to store and transmit learning from one generation to the next using language, solving this problem took us only a few thousand years.
First, the ancient Greeks told the story of a master craftsman called Daedalus, who crafted wings out of feathers and wax so that his son Icarus could fly. Then during the Renaissance, inventors such as Leonardo da Vinci actively designed and built flying devices but could not master the technology beyond primitive gliders. It wasn’t until 1903 that humans truly mastered powered flight, thanks to the first airplanes built by the Wright brothers.
For airplanes to be able to fly, it required the existence of another new invention: the internal combustion engine. To create the necessary lift, an airplane needs thrust. Being able to apply an invention originally developed for cars to master powered flight is a great example of the leaps cultural evolution can take.
But cultural evolution in and of itself doesn’t necessarily guarantee continuous progress or success. The ideas and solutions that spread are not neces- sarily useful–just better at replicating than their competitors. We all know how quickly a nasty rumor can spread through a community, for example. Because it is so titillating, and perhaps because it confirms a deep-seated prejudice we hold, we are much more likely to share it than a boring fact.
If we are not careful, hate, fear and all kinds of misinformation can overwhelm our information diet. Since social media and the internet are incredibly powerful tools for replicating information, what we need more than ever is to develop a type of mental immunity that can protect our minds from becoming infested with bad ideas.
Because of advances in science, the process of evolution has become conscious of itself. Where evolution used to be blind, now it can see. Where complex life forms were created without a creator, humans are now consciously designing their environment and various adaptations to it. Instead of progressing through random trial and error, evolution can now progress with clear end goals in mind.
Evolutionary processes take place whether we wanted them or not. If we let them loose, they can produce both good and bad outcomes. Only by taking charge of them can we make them work in our favor. The marketplace is a good example of a selection process that produces both good and bad outcomes. The incentives it now provides reward selfishness, which explains much of the amoral and antisocial outcomes associated with our current economic system.
The solution I propose in this book represents a managed process of cultural evolution. By learning to cooperate on a global scale, using new digital tools and an optimized incentive system, we have the potential to create a major transition in evolution.
Compare this to a joke, which is a great example of how cultural evolution works in our everyday lives. If a joke generates laughter, it will be copied and told over and over again. Each teller varies the joke a little bit. Some manage to improve on the joke, while others bungle the punchline. Only the versions that generate laughter will be copied and retold by others. Laughter serves as the selection process of which jokes spread and which don’t. This same principle applies to everything humans create. Successful versions are copied and varied, while failed examples are quickly forgotten.
Cultural evolution is also called the dual inheritance theory, since, unlike all other animals, humans now have two ways to transmit vital information from one generation to the next. The dual inheritance theory uses genes as an analogy for the way cultural information is passed on from person to person. A meme, just like a gene, is a small unit of information–an idea, symbol or practice–transmitted by human culture almost like a virus. As we pass on these memes, new variations of them appear, and various selection processes continue to shape them exactly the way evolution shapes populations.
The language used to describe how culture shapes the information contained in memes borrows heavily from biology. Successful memes are said to “reproduce” more easily, while unsuccessful ones tend to go “extinct.” Some claim that memes have an actual biological origin, speculating that they are physically encoded into the synapses of our brains.
Practically everything we humans create can be seen as a meme or a collection of memes, or memeplexes: the clothes we wear, the music we listen to and the social customs we engage in. Our lives are filled with different versions of these memes, and the various selection pressures present in our culture constantly shape them. If you look back only a few years, let alone decades, you can see how the way we dress, our taste in music and our social customs have evolved.
Technologies offer an even more vivid example of this process because, as in biological evolution, the laws of nature select which versions will be copied. When ancient cultures developed boats, for example, the sea acted as a powerful selection mechanism for which designs would be copied and which ended up at the bottom of the sea.
The same applies to airplanes: gravity will destroy all bad designs in their infancy. The designs that survive are copied and then incrementally improved in the hopes that they will provide an advantage compared with the original. No design can escape the necessary dialogue with the laws of nature, which ultimately select the best designs from all the variations.
When biological evolution solves problems, it doesn’t have a direction, a purpose or a designer. It is merely an adaptation to a specific environment. But when humans solve problems and design objects, we have foresight and a specific end goal in mind. This makes the process of cultural evolution conscious. It also makes it many times faster than what we find in nature.
Nature has developed powered flight at least four separate times, first with insects around 350 million years ago, then with pterosaurs 230 million years ago, with birds 165 million years ago and finally with bats around 60 million years ago. Where it took nature some 3.5 billion years to develop the ability to fly, once humans were able to store and transmit learning from one generation to the next using language, solving this problem took us only a few thousand years.
First, the ancient Greeks told the story of a master craftsman called Daedalus, who crafted wings out of feathers and wax so that his son Icarus could fly. Then during the Renaissance, inventors such as Leonardo da Vinci actively designed and built flying devices but could not master the technology beyond primitive gliders. It wasn’t until 1903 that humans truly mastered powered flight, thanks to the first airplanes built by the Wright brothers.
For airplanes to be able to fly, it required the existence of another new invention: the internal combustion engine. To create the necessary lift, an airplane needs thrust. Being able to apply an invention originally developed for cars to master powered flight is a great example of the leaps cultural evolution can take.
But cultural evolution in and of itself doesn’t necessarily guarantee continuous progress or success. The ideas and solutions that spread are not neces- sarily useful–just better at replicating than their competitors. We all know how quickly a nasty rumor can spread through a community, for example. Because it is so titillating, and perhaps because it confirms a deep-seated prejudice we hold, we are much more likely to share it than a boring fact.
If we are not careful, hate, fear and all kinds of misinformation can overwhelm our information diet. Since social media and the internet are incredibly powerful tools for replicating information, what we need more than ever is to develop a type of mental immunity that can protect our minds from becoming infested with bad ideas.
Because of advances in science, the process of evolution has become conscious of itself. Where evolution used to be blind, now it can see. Where complex life forms were created without a creator, humans are now consciously designing their environment and various adaptations to it. Instead of progressing through random trial and error, evolution can now progress with clear end goals in mind.
Evolutionary processes take place whether we wanted them or not. If we let them loose, they can produce both good and bad outcomes. Only by taking charge of them can we make them work in our favor. The marketplace is a good example of a selection process that produces both good and bad outcomes. The incentives it now provides reward selfishness, which explains much of the amoral and antisocial outcomes associated with our current economic system.
The solution I propose in this book represents a managed process of cultural evolution. By learning to cooperate on a global scale, using new digital tools and an optimized incentive system, we have the potential to create a major transition in evolution.
