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Princeton University Library Catalog
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The acceleration of cultural change : from ancestors to algorithms / R. Alexander Bentley and Michael J. O'Brien ; foreword by John Maeda.
Author
Bentley, R. Alexander, 1970-
[Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/Created
Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2017]
Description
xvii, 156 pages : illustrations, map ; 21 cm
Availability
Copies in the Library
Location
Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks
HM626 .B473 2017
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Details
Subject(s)
Social evolution
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Author
O'Brien, Michael J. (Michael John), 1950-
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Writer of foreword
Maeda, John
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Series
Simplicity (Cambridge, Mass.)
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Simplicity: design, technology, business, life
Summary note
From our hunter-gatherer days, we humans evolved to be excellent throwers, chewers, and long-distance runners. We are highly social, crave Paleolithic snacks, and display some gendered difference resulting from mate selection. But we now find ourselves binge-viewing, texting while driving, and playing Minecraft. Only the collective acceleration of cultural and technological evolution explains this development. The evolutionary psychology of individuals --the drive for "food and sex"-- explains some of our current habits, but our evolutionary success, Alex Bentley and Mike O'Brien explain, lies in our ability to learn cultural know-how and to teach it to the next generation. 00Bentley and O'Brien examine the broad and shallow model of cultural evolution seen today in the science of networks, prediction markets, and the explosion of digital information. They suggest that in the future, artificial intelligence could be put to work to solve the problem of information overload, learning to integrate concepts over the vast idea space of digitally stored information.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (pages 129-149) and index.
Contents
Preface: in the middleton theater
Traditional minds
Change is not norman
Check the transmission
Cultural trees
Bayesians
Traditions and horizons
Networks
Hindsighted
Moore is better?
Free willy.
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ISBN
9780262036955 ((hardcover : alkaline paper))
0262036959 ((hardcover : alkaline paper))
LCCN
2017006483
OCLC
978286295
Other standard number
40027590334
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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