Chapter 6. Cultural Selection

2021 ◽  
pp. 173-192
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Selection

scholarly journals Population turnover facilitates cultural selection for efficiency in birds

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Chimento ◽  
Gustavo Alarcón-Nieto ◽  
Lucy M. Aplin
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Selection ◽  
Population Turnover ◽  
Selection For

On Sustainable Development Culture and its Construction

2011 ◽  
Vol 361-363 ◽  
pp. 1342-1345
Author(s):  
Yong Hong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Present State ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Cultural Selection ◽  
The Times

The sustainable development culture is a culture aiming to bring culture itself into harmony with the times, promote social all-round progress and human overall and sustainable development. In today’s china, this culture is particularly needed because of the ecological crisis and population pressure we are facing, the present state of Chinese culture and the pressing need of China for construction of cultural soft power. In the construction of sustainable development culture, special attention should be given to cultural selection, education popularization and system guarantee.

Human self-selection as a mechanism of human societal evolution: A critique of the cultural selection argument

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843102110497
Author(s):  
Shanyang Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Cultural Adaptations ◽  
Neolithic Revolution ◽  
Cultural Selection ◽  
Self Selection ◽  
New Type ◽  
Fitness Criterion ◽  
Societal Evolution

Natural selection is the main mechanism that drives the evolution of species, including human societies. Under natural selection, human species responds through genetic and cultural adaptations to internal and external selection pressures for survival and reproductive success. However, this theory is ineffective in explaining human societal evolution in the Holocene and a cultural selection argument has been made to remedy the theory. The present article provides a critique of the cultural selection argument and proposes an alternative conception that treats human self-selection as an emergent mechanism of human societal evolution characterized by a new type of selection pressure and a separate fitness criterion. Specifically, the evolution of human societies is divided into two major periods, each driven by a different mode of selection: natural selection acting on genes and cultures for survival and reproductive success prior to the Neolithic Revolution, and human self-selection acting on cultures – and potentially genes as well – for thrival and prosperous living after the Neolithic Revolution. The conditions for the transition from the first mode of selection to the second and the implications of this transition for social research are also discussed.

On Cultural Selection:

TRAC 2011 ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 76-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Biddulph
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Selection

Cumulation

2019 ◽  
pp. 186-212
Author(s):  
Alberto Acerbi
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Selection ◽  
Cultural Domain ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution ◽  
Efficient Mechanisms

Chapter 8 considers what cultural evolutionists call cumulative cultural evolution, that is, the idea that culture increases in complexity. For a cultural domain being defined as cumulative, it needs to show accumulation (more traits), improvement (traits are more efficient), and ratcheting (new traits build on previous innovations). The author proposes that this is not a necessary outcome, and that different domains show different signs of cumulation. It is suggested that the fidelity and the hyper-availability provided by digital media allow for more cumulation in domains where it was limited before. Not surprisingly, they also allow for the retention of vast amounts of useless information—junk culture. A central challenge for the coming years is thus finding efficient mechanisms of online cultural selection. Algorithmic selection is finally discussed, along with how mainstream criticisms, such as the fact that algorithms are biased or opaque to users, are not decisive arguments against their efficacy and utility.

The Current Bottleneck of Knowledge Management and How Information Technology can be Successfully Used to Reduce it

2011 ◽  
pp. 289-315
Author(s):  
Ricardo Salim ◽  
Carlos Ferran
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Field Tests ◽  
Cultural Selection

Knowledge is generated and propogated by cultural selection, a process that—like it genetic counterpart, natural selection—consumes much time and resources in contrasting every new (or mutated) information with reality. However, if we hasten to minimize the field tests or marketing tests—forms of cultural selection—we run into the risk of not testing the knowledge sufficiently and make a deficient contrast with reality. In this chapter we present the concept of pragmatic minimization as the compromise of minimizing the amount of resources invested in contrasting the newly acquired knowledge with reality, while not falling into a lack of realism—blind idealism—or a cominatorial explosion of mental possibilities. Then, we advocate “simulated praxis” and a “more pragmatic artificial intelligence” as new avenues to optimally solve the problem of pragmatic minimization.

Cultural Selection, Axiological Reasoning, and Paradiastole (I)

2007 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. G. Runciman
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Heritable Variation ◽  
Cultural Selection ◽  
Competitive Selection ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
Selection For

In the course of cultural evolution, both attitudes and beliefs are continuously modified by heritable variation and competitive selection. For Raymond Boudon, this process is exactly the same in the two cases, since in both axiological and practical reasoning consensus depends on a shared acknowledgement that the agreed conclusions are the products of “strong” reasons. His argument is, however, open to objection on psychological and sociological as well as philosophical grounds, and is vulnerable to the traditional rhetorical device known as paradiastole.

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