The Global Brain: A Computational Model

Peter Kuhn, writing on LessWrong, has developed a computational model that reveals an evolutionary conflict at the heart of human society. In the simulation, creatures carry both genes and memes — biological and cultural traits — that determine how social they want to be. When memetic evolution is introduced, memes spread faster than genes through direct contact, and something dramatic happens: creatures pursue roughly twice as many social interactions as they would in a biology-only model. The reason is elegant: prosocial memes have an incentive to propagate themselves. Biological evolution responds by actually suppressing our genetic inclination to socialize, trying to counterbalance the social overload that culture drives. It's a model that captures something real about how different layers of evolution can end up in genuine tension with one another.

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