Organisms, organizations and interactions: an information theory approach to biocultural evolution.
The language metaphor of theoretical biology, proposed by Waddington in 1972, provides a basis for the formal examination of how different self-reproducing structures interact in an extended evolutionary context. Such interactions have become central objects of study in fields ranging from human evolution-genes and culture-to economics-firms, markets and technology. Here we use the Shannon-McMillan Theorem, one of the fundamental asymptotic relations of probability theory, to study the 'weakest' and hence most universal, forms of interaction between generalized languages. We propose that the co-evolving gene-culture structure that permits human ultra-sociality emerged in a singular coagulation of genetic and cultural 'languages', in the general sense of the word. Human populations have since hosted series of culture-only speciations and coagulations, events that, in this formulation, do not become mired in the 'meme' concept.
Wallace
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Public Interest Scientific Consulting Service, New York, NY 10027, USA. rdwall@ix.netcom.com
Wallace
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D005075:Biological Evolution; D006801:Humans; D007257:Information Theory; D007802:Language; D008962:Models, Theoretical