scholarly journals Competition and extinction explain the evolution of diversity in American automobiles

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Gjesfjeld ◽  
Jonathan Chang ◽  
Daniele Silvestro ◽  
Christopher Kelty ◽  
Michael Alfaro
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Extrinsic Factors ◽  
Car Model ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Technological Diversity ◽  
Occurrence Data ◽  
Technological Diversification ◽  
Evolution Of Technology

Abstract One of the most remarkable aspects of our species is that while we show surprisingly little genetic diversity, we demonstrate astonishing amounts of cultural diversity. Perhaps most impressive is the diversity of our technologies, broadly defined as all the physical objects we produce and the skills we use to produce them. Despite considerable focus on the evolution of technology by social scientists and philosophers, there have been few attempts to systematically quantify technological diversity, and therefore the dynamics of technological change remain poorly understood. Here we show a novel Bayesian model for examining technological diversification adopted from palaeontological analysis of occurrence data. We use this framework to estimate the tempo of diversification in American car and truck models produced between 1896 and 2014, and to test the relative importance of competition and extrinsic factors in shaping changes in macro-evolutionary rates. Our results identify a four-fold decrease in the origination and extinction rates of car models, and a negative net diversification rate over the last 30 years. We also demonstrate that competition played a more significant role in car model diversification than either changes in oil prices or gross domestic product. Together our analyses provide a set of tools that can enhance current research on technological and cultural evolution by providing a flexible and quantitative framework for exploring the dynamics of diversification.

scholarly journals Detecting environment-dependent diversification from phylogenies: a simulation study and some empirical illustrations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Lewitus ◽  
Hélène Morlon
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Species Trees ◽  
Major Goal ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Dependency Tree ◽  
Species Evolution ◽  
Abiotic Variables

AbstractUnderstanding the relative influence of various abiotic and biotic variables on diversification dynamics is a major goal of macroevolutionary studies. Recently, phylogenetic approaches have been developed that make it possible to estimate the role of various environmental variables on diversification using time-calibrated species trees, paleoenvironmental data, and maximum-likelihood techniques. These approaches have been effectively employed to estimate how speciation and extinction rates vary with key abiotic variables, such as temperature and sea level, and we can anticipate that they will be increasingly used in the future. Here we compile a series of biotic and abiotic paleodatasets that can be used as explanatory variables in these models and use simulations to assess the statistical properties of the approach when applied to these paleodatasets. We demonstrate that environment-dependent models perform well in recovering environment-dependent speciation and extinction parameters, as well as in correctly identifying the simulated environmental model when speciation isenvironment-dependent. We explore how the strength of the environment-dependency, tree size, missing taxa, and characteristics of the paleoenvironmental curves influence the performance of the models. Finally, using these models, we infer environment-dependent diversification in three empirical phylogenies: temperature-dependence in Cetacea,δ13C-dependence in Ruminantia, andCO2-dependence in Portulacaceae. We illustrate how to evaluate the relative importance of abiotic and biotic variables in these three clades and interpret these results in light of macroevolutionary hypotheses for mammals and plants. Given the important role paleoenvironments are presumed to have played in species evolution, our statistical assessment of how environment-dependent models behave is crucial for their utility in macroevolutionary analysis.

The Cultural Evolution of Technology

2013 ◽  
pp. 119-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Boyd ◽  
Peter J. Richerson ◽  
Joseph Henrich
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Evolution Of Technology

Evolution is important but it is not simple: Defining cultural traits and incorporating complex evolutionary theory

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 354-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustín Fuentes
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Cultural Traits

Examining homology in biological and cultural evolution is of great importance in investigations of humanity. The proposal presented in the target article retains substantial methodological weaknesses in the identification and use of “cultural traits.” However, with refined toolkits and the incorporation of recent advances in evolutionary theory, this overall endeavor can result in substantial payoffs for biological and social scientists.

Learning from Culture

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Plotkin
Keyword(s):  
Individual Development ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Development And Evolution ◽  
Cultural Entities

This chapter examines some of the lessons that can be learned by social scientists from a naturalised science of culture. After considering whether culture is unique to humans, it discusses different kinds of cultural entities such as artefacts and how we should think about them. It then explores whether culture must be understood in terms of processes or mechanisms and evaluates the relative importance of individual development and evolution. Finally, it explores whether culture and cultural entities may be considered adaptations.

The Cultural Evolution of Technology and Science

2013 ◽  
pp. 193-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Mesoudi ◽  
Kevin N. Laland ◽  
Robert Boyd ◽  
Briggs Buchanan ◽  
Emma Flynn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Evolution Of Technology

scholarly journals An Evaluation of Research Needs for Agricultural Economists

1969 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-158
Author(s):  
R. J. Hildreth ◽  
Roland R. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Qualitative Information ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
Department Of Agriculture ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Land Grant Institutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Professional Research

An attempt will be made to indicate: (1) the future needs for social scientists, in general, and agricultural economists, in particular, for research in the land-grant institutions and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, (2) the location of these needs for agricultural economists, and (3) the types of research activities that are gaining in relative importance in the social sciences. The quantitative and qualitative information presented should provide some guidance in locating professional research workers where they are most needed.Let us examine the present and prospective allocation of social scientists among the various areas of research activity, as well as the relative importance of these areas.

scholarly journals The evolution of ‘culture’: Juggling a concept

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Palecek
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Explanatory Role ◽  
The Social ◽  
Evolutionary Science ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Dual Inheritance

Although the concept of culture was severely criticized in the second half of the twentieth century, its explanatory use has not been abandoned. Evolutionary psychologists and cognitive scientists have more recently used the concept in models and theories of culture. This use renews the hope that the concept of culture can be explanatorily useful within the social sciences, especially since the new definition of culture connects with both the idea of evolution and with the other natural sciences. In this paper, I analyze the models of cultural evolution developed by Cultural Evolutionary Science (CES), more specifically gene-culture coevolution theoretical models and dual-inheritance theories. I argue that even if CES scholars mostly claim that for them, culture is equal to information, some of these models have aspirations to bring back cultures as discrete units that resemble the social anthropological models of culture that have been already abandoned. I discuss evolutionists’ and social anthropologists’ objections to these models. I claim that despite the popularity of cultural evolutionist theories, social scientists (cultural anthropologists and historians, for example) should remain skeptical about the possibility that this approach can assume an explanatory role for a concept of culture.

scholarly journals Adolescent BMI: The Importance of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-161
Author(s):  
Molly Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Linear Models ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Sexual Encounter ◽  
Extrinsic Factors ◽  
Intrinsic Factors ◽  
Multinomial Logit Models ◽  
Adolescents And Adults ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Intrinsic And Extrinsic Factors ◽  
Weight Classification

Objectives:Research shows that weight trends in adolescence persist into adulthood, but do the same factors contribute to weight in adolescence as in adulthood? Are extrinsic factors presumably more important than intrinsic characteristics? This study identifies the correlation between BMI and various intrinsic and extrinsic factors and evaluates their relative importance in BMI development. It compares the primary determinants for adolescents (12-20 years old) and adults (21+ years old).Methods:Using 15 years of panel data, generalized linear models, we assessed the impact of extrinsic-environmental, biological, geographic and household-and intrinsic-sexual activity, substance use, desire to lose weight,etc.-characteristics on adolescent and adult BMI. Multinomial logit models tested the contribution of these characteristics to weight categories.Results:Race and age were the most significant BMI correlates at all ages. This remains true for weight classification as well. For young adolescents, intrinsic factors are highly deterministic, while extrinsic factors play no role. As adolescents age into adults, intrinsic factors continue to be deterministic, while extrinsic covariates also emerge as deterministic. Intrinsic determinates of significance include age of first sexual encounter, tobacco experimentation, perspective on general health, and desire to lose weight (or stay the same weight).Conclusion:While biological/genetic attributes are the largest determinants of BMI at every age, intrinsic factors play a larger role in adolescent BMI development than adults. As individuals age, intrinsic determinants remain important, but extrinsic characteristics contribute significantly to weight classification. Thus, the weight determinants differ between adolescents and adults suggesting different methods of policy intervention be used for adolescents and adults.

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