Great stuff. Somehow I missed this one while I was growing up. Did you find out how popular this is compared to the social intelligence hypothesis (that the selective pressure was for navigating increasingly complex social relationships)?
My (non-expert) understanding is that this theory is a much deeper and more powerful explanation than the social intelligence hypothesis. Selective pressure for social intelligence likely played some role but it's a lot more difficult to argue that it was the primary driver like social learning might have been.
The two pressures might interact. Social learning might work better if you have a model of what other humans are likely to do. If I make this tool then I should share only with my friends. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Person X is not smart enough to take advantage of this, but I can teach it to Y. I owe X for past favor; this thing might serve as payment. If I steal that thing from X, I can get away with it. But these calculations work better if I have mental models of other people. So, instead of just having imitation learning to accelerate culture we have theory of mind. And IMHO, acquiring theory of mind and having awareness of your own mind are somehow entangled. So complex sociality and consciousness co-create. And social learning and culture co-create.
Yup - I think the cultural drive hypothesis is a neat theory because it describes a kind of auto-catalytic virtuous cycle that can loop in other intelligence-enhancing selective pressures.
Great stuff. Somehow I missed this one while I was growing up. Did you find out how popular this is compared to the social intelligence hypothesis (that the selective pressure was for navigating increasingly complex social relationships)?
My (non-expert) understanding is that this theory is a much deeper and more powerful explanation than the social intelligence hypothesis. Selective pressure for social intelligence likely played some role but it's a lot more difficult to argue that it was the primary driver like social learning might have been.
The two pressures might interact. Social learning might work better if you have a model of what other humans are likely to do. If I make this tool then I should share only with my friends. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Person X is not smart enough to take advantage of this, but I can teach it to Y. I owe X for past favor; this thing might serve as payment. If I steal that thing from X, I can get away with it. But these calculations work better if I have mental models of other people. So, instead of just having imitation learning to accelerate culture we have theory of mind. And IMHO, acquiring theory of mind and having awareness of your own mind are somehow entangled. So complex sociality and consciousness co-create. And social learning and culture co-create.
Yup - I think the cultural drive hypothesis is a neat theory because it describes a kind of auto-catalytic virtuous cycle that can loop in other intelligence-enhancing selective pressures.