(11) Successes and Extinctions Flashcards
Repeated Invention: Creativity vs. Adoption
Oftentimes the original invention is NOT the one that is adopted.
First innovations typically occur long before the form that is actually adopted, and serve as the foundation for the later product. Creators rarely credited.
Digital Media…
- Permits cultural diffusion of information on a global scale
- Provides immediate. free, and high-fidelity transmission.
- Highly accelerated cultural evolution of telecommunication technology.
Digital Media and Prestige Bias
Permits the possibility of global prestige, not just local prestige.
- Influencers lead to cascades of information spread on social media (which follow a power-law distribution; few large cascades, most never reposted)
Digital Media and Frequency-Dependent Biases
- Popularity Bias (copying the most popular) is similar to conformity bias.
- Popularity is quantified and explicitly made public via social media.
[ex. online consumer reviews, like counts, top-N lists.]
Echo Chambers
Communities of likeminded people.
- Relates to the concept of homophily; people prefer to interact with others they perceive as similar to themselves.
Replacement
Demic Replacement: the replacement of one group of people by another.
Cultural Replacement: the replacement of one group of cultural traits by another. (ex. language replacement; pygmies for the purpose of trade)
Admixture
Demic Admixture: the genetic admixture of one group of people with another through interbreeding.
Cultural Admixture: the blending of one group of cultural traits with another to create fusions.
Situations like warfare and migration can lead to admixture.
Cultural Equity
Cultural extinction is now accelerating all over the world, as cultural groups become more connected to groups with technology that may outcompete traditional adaptations.
