Forum: 1-beliefs-factory
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| Culture is Collective Learning [ Reply ] By: Tim Smart on 2014-07-02 06:18 | [forum:43724] |
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Culture is Collective Learning. Adaptation by Evolution is slow. Natural selection depends on genetic changes over many generations. It can take hundreds of thousands of generations for changes to evolve and spread. The fundamental mechanism through which living organisms adapt is extremely slow. Individual Learning is fast adaptation. Many multi-celled organisms such as ourselves have brains. Organisms with brains can change how they relate to their surroundings, not by waiting many generations, but within a single lifetime. As adults we are better at dealing with our surroundings than we were as babies. Individual learning is not cumulative. In terms of people, it’s what individuals learn over their lifetimes. Most of what an individual learns can not be passed on to others, in that each individual starts from scratch. Individual learning doesn’t shape long term history of a species, though it may affect the lives of individuals. Many species have access to fast adaptation through individual learning, but humans go one further. Humans are the only species with culture. Adaptation by Collective Learning drives the evolution of culture. Individuals have the capacity to better adapt to their surroundings over their lifetimes, but only humans can pass on what they’ve learned to the rest of the species. Civilization and culture are a consequence of our capacity for learning collectively as a species. -- Adapted from - David Christian - Big History lecture 20 http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6673365/TTC_-_Big_History_-The_Big_Bang__Life_on_Earth__and_the_Rise_of_ |
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