tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6535481649727720492.post5904248417438726818..comments2024-03-27T21:43:02.451-04:00Comments on NEW SAVANNA: Some Quick Thoughts on Cultural EvolutionBill Benzonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08360044945265178991noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6535481649727720492.post-11327472612365859422015-02-02T18:59:08.966-05:002015-02-02T18:59:08.966-05:00Reconstructing family trees is a key activity for ...<i>Reconstructing family trees is a key activity for evolutionists. The fact that these tools work on the level of information means that they can also be applied to cultural evolution without modification. The exact same tools can be used to construct phylomemetic trees. Information theory thus unifies the foundations of organic and cultural evolution.</i><br /><br />Interesting. As you know Bill Benzonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08360044945265178991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6535481649727720492.post-3585797371495465352015-02-02T18:15:52.529-05:002015-02-02T18:15:52.529-05:00So: information theory is useful in genetics/memet...So: information theory is useful in genetics/memetics - despite not having anything to do with meaning - largely because it deals with the topics of mutual information and error correction/detection. Mutual information is probably the single most important concept. That lets observers see when a gene is probably a copy of another gene (or they are both inherited from a shared ancestor). There areTim Tylerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06623536372084468307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6535481649727720492.post-89691227105503787832015-02-02T16:48:50.011-05:002015-02-02T16:48:50.011-05:00But it's the meaning of those messages that is...But it's the meaning of those messages that is culturally important. And when Dennett talks about words as memes he quite definitely talks about their meaning. I've also seen a video where he says that memes aren't about Shanon/Weaver information, they're about "semantic" information. So if information can't deal with meaning, then it can't deal with culture in Bill Benzonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08360044945265178991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6535481649727720492.post-3194081286776390102015-02-02T16:24:24.281-05:002015-02-02T16:24:24.281-05:00Information theory is pretty general. It already c...Information theory is pretty general. It already covers the transmission of linguistic messages - just as it covers messages relating to music, science, technology and religion. What it doesn't cover is "meaning". However, complaining that information theory doesn't cover "meaning" is rather like complaining that a ruler doesn't tell the time. Sure - but that'sTim Tylerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06623536372084468307noreply@blogger.com