Mechanisms of cultural evolution

Somewhere in southern Africa, about 160—180 thousand years ago, another species appeared in the hominid family of a large order of primates, which biologists gave the name Homo sapiens. This species, not distinguished by any physical qualities, as a result of its unusual evolution, became the dominant species on the Planet. The appearance of new species, as well as their disappearance, are ordinary events in the long evolution of living nature, which has been going on for 3.8 billion years. But in this case, a species arose that turned into a person, became the dominant species, affecting the entire ecosystem. In his development, man went beyond the Earth and acquired the ability to destroy all life on Earth with one careless movement.

The uniqueness of the evolution of this species lies in the fact that it began to evolve differently from all other species, adapting to environmental conditions due to morphological changes, i.e. by changing the structure of individual organs. He didn’t grow hair to keep warm in cold climates, he didn’t grow strong claws like those of predators, his legs didn’t become too fast to flee from predators.

In order not to freeze, he built housing and acquired clothing from skins, created tools for labor and hunting, used fire, which was used even before the appearance of this species, by his distant ancestors. He lived in small, friendly collectives, connected by social relations, where he had to communicate a lot, make primitive tools of labor, develop tactics of collective action, thereby ensuring greater security for himself.

As a result of evolutionary development, he acquired a developed language of communication and an advanced mind, which helped him to survive in difficult and hostile conditions. Language and reason, have a common basis, influence each other and determine the direction of evolutionary development.

This evolution of Homo sapiens, evolution through adaptation of behavior, not morphology, has been called human cultural evolution.

The exit from Africa of Homo sapiens and the development of other continents in time is shown on the map:

(http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey (https://ridero.ru/link/kDXB2czyOb1ROL))

Homo sapiens originally lived in small hunter-gatherer tribes. Life in tribes requires constant communication. In the presence of a large brain potential, this led to the development of a fairly informative language of communication. Not being endowed with special physical qualities, representatives of the species Homo sapiens were forced to make tools for hunting and everyday life. The genetically determined feature of the brain morphology of this species has created a great potential for the development of the mind. The ancestor’s brain of this species has grown 3 times in 2 million years.

Economic activity contributed to the realization of this potential, and the development of reason increased the effectiveness of all activities.

There is a positive feedback (PIC) between the result of work and the increase in intelligence. The mind increases the efficiency of work, and creative work develops the mind. Such positive feedback processes lead to rapid evolution in this direction.

You can read more about the origin and evolution of man in the book by A. Markov (Evolution of man. In 2 books. 2011). This book is based on research in anthropology, genetics, and evolutionary psychology.

We are not interested in genetics, not biological evolution, but in the unique path of human cultural evolution, which made it possible to create civilization.

Brain and Mind

The ancestral brains of Homo sapiens grew enormously over a relatively short period of evolutionary time. Three million years ago, the volume of the skull of an adult Australopithecus was 400—500 cubic meters. cm. Two million years later, his supposed descendant, Homo erectus, had a brain with a volume of about 1000 cubic meters. cm.

Over the next million years, it increased to 900—2000 cubic meters. cm. in modern Homo sapiens.

But the brain is not yet the mind. Brain architecture and environmental pressures work together to create intelligence.

The most important factor that made human cultural evolution extremely effective is the appearance of sufficient intelligence in Homo sapiens in the course of evolutionary development.

By reason, I, to talk about cultural evolution, I mean:

The ability to build in the brain such models of fragments of the surrounding world that allow predicting some events of reality without performing the experiment itself.

The ancestors of Homo sapiens already had intelligence, it is clearly manifested in the behavior of many species of animals, but its further growth stopped at a certain level, not allowing other species to further advance along the path of cultural evolution.

The ancestors of Homo sapiens already had intelligence, it is clearly manifested in the behavior of many species of animals, but its further growth stopped at a certain level, not allowing other species to further advance along the path of cultural evolution.

The new science – infodynamics – deals with the most general regularities in the processes of transmission, transformation, processing and storage of information.

One of the provisions of this science is that consciousness, thoughts, science itself and other results of human mental activity are secondary reality, i.e. approximate models of the real world.

The model cannot coincide with reality 100%, be the same with it from any point of view. It can only be adequate from a certain point of view.

Models describing the same group of phenomena can have different description accuracy and different range of applicability. For example, the laws of electrodynamics formulated by Maxwell are an example of a model that is remarkable and useful under certain conditions. These laws summarize all information about electrical phenomena, but they are interesting among qualified physicists. They will not be useful to a simple electrician, and even more so to the layman, since there are simpler local representations that are a consequence of Maxwell’s equations.

The human mind builds models by being attached to its own point of view, to its platform from which a person perceives the world. The point of view is formed by those principles and ways of thinking that a person learned at the initial stage of his life. Model representations that a person carries in himself depend on the motivation (orientation) of his mind.

If in childhood you were inspired with the idea of the divine creation of the world, then theological thinking forces you to look at the world from this point of view, where everything is arranged according to the will of the creator, where you cannot doubt the basic principles, you need to explain all phenomena so that they fit into the framework accepted dogmas. Then there is almost no freedom of choice for you. They have already chosen for you. Your mind is motivated in a certain way. Therefore, the religious fanatic and the scientist see the world differently.

The ratio of the brain and mind

The brain is an environment built by genetics from specialized cells called neurons. The brain can perform a number of functions: it collects information about the external environment from the sense organs, from nerve cells about the internal environment, processes information, remembers and, depending on the results, controls behavior.

The brain is able to store processed information for some time. The brain of a newborn already possesses some «Reason» in the sense that information processing programs are already operating in it. But these are programs innate «wired» into it. This is the original firmware of the brain, which is not available to us and therefore, it is incorrect to call it the mind.

Part of the brain is dedicated to the mind. The functions of this part are called consciousness, because we are aware of the nature of the information in consciousness.

The functions performed by the brain are realized by changing the functional states of its individual fragments (local neural networks), just as in a computer only the contents (states) of certain cells change during operation.

The mind does not directly depend on the size of the brain. So an elephant with a huge brain has a mind much smaller than a human. His brain is not adapted to learning as much as the human brain. We can say that the architecture of the elephant’s brain does not allow organizing an effective mind.

We are aware and control only the information that is in consciousness. In the brain, apart from consciousness, there is a space called by S. Freud subconsciousness and unconsciousness. The differences are that the programs of the unconscious are formed earlier, while the subconscious is formed in the processes of upbringing and education.

The subconscious and the unconscious contain and operate with information that is inaccessible to consciousness, but plays an equally important role, performing the functions of automatic (without the participation of the mind) control of individual body functions.

In addition, the unconscious and the subconscious put pressure on consciousness, motivate it. Consciousness controls behavior taking into account the already formed unconscious and subconscious.

Finding reason

Although part of the brain is allocated for the mind, it is not there initially. The mind is created in the processes of adaptive self-organization. These processes are influenced by innate instincts (unconscious), the environment in which a person lives, the processes of education and upbringing that form the subconscious. For the development of the mind, the processes of education and training must correspond to innate properties, otherwise they will be ineffective.

The brain can be compared to a computer. Without programs, a computer is useless. The operating system and suite of utilities are installed under the control of professional programmers. Other programs are installed by the user himself according to his needs. Self-installed programs must be compatible with the operating system.

Reason can be considered a semblance of custom programs with adaptive capabilities. But the mind is not created by programmers (teachers and educators), but arises in the processes of self-organization. Teachers and educators are only helpers in these processes. They should be considered as an external environment in which the mind and subconscious are formed. Education and upbringing are effectively perceived by the body at certain stages of its development. The social environment is essential for the formation of the mind and subconscious.

The formation of the mind takes place in the process of self-organization in a certain social environment.

Some unreasonably believe that the human mind is an innate entity that distinguishes it from other primates. But this is not the case.

There are known examples when a person who grew up in a flock of animals (Mowgli) remains at the same level of development as other representatives of the flock. It is no longer possible to train him to become a full-fledged person, since the right time has been missed.

It is also known that no matter how much you educate the monkey, it can become very smart, but it will not be able to reach the average human mind.

This means that not the mind itself, but the ability to develop is an innate, genetically given property. Ability should be viewed as a window that opens at a specific time period. Whether a person uses this window depends on the person’s environment.

In biological evolution, genes in most cases create a kind of predisposition, but do not rigidly determine the processes.

If we do not take into account the environmental factors, their effect on the development processes in living organisms, then we slide towards genetic determinism, if we ignore the organizing principle of genes, then we take the position of the notorious T. Lysenko. These extremes should be avoided.

Human beings are genetically different from other primates in their ability to develop their minds. Mind is a genetic potential that is timely realized in a person at certain stages of his development. Realizing the potential is a matter of education and upbringing.

The ability to develop the mind distinguishes humans not only from monkeys, but also within human populations, these abilities differ greatly. Representatives of biological species have varying degrees of severity of different characters. It is this variability of characters that makes it possible for selection to work. The remark also applies to reason, which is subject to social selection in a social society. The variability of species according to different characteristics was discovered by Charles Darwin, in this case variability is the difference between people in terms of the capabilities of the brain for functional development.

Real progress comes from those people whose minds are above average. It is possible without a big mistake to assume that there is a threshold value of the mind at which effective innovation is possible. To create conditions for work in science, for a person incapable of it, who does not reach the threshold, is a waste of money. A person is born with some potential for the development of reason, but whether it will be realized in life depends on many circumstances.