@replicatedtypo

Simulating sci-fi novels and calling it cultural evolution | Centre for Culture and Evolution | Brunel University London

 London, UK
j-winters.github.io/
Joined July 2008
  • Tweets5.7K
  • Following1.1K
  • Followers1.4K
60Media
🚨🚨 New preprint 📜 with Mathieu Charbonneau (@matcharbonneau1): Modelling the emergence of open-ended technological evolution (arxiv.org/abs/2508.04828). Feedback welcomed! #Evolution #Technology #Culture #OpenEnded #TechnologicalEvolution #CulturalEvolution 🧵: 1/29
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Will
@Evolving_MolochOct 12
Dolls are incredibly widespread but not universal cross-culturally. In addition to functioning as toys, dolls are commonly used for supernatural purposes to punish enemies, heal or protect, increase fertility, or embody spirits. New paper in EHB with @NachitaRosun.
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Levin Brinkmann@LevinBrinkmannAug 18
We worry about homogenisation, but can AI also expand human culture? In a multi-generational experiment we demonstrate AI-induced cultural shifts. Machines lastingly shift human behavior, beyond their presence, just as AlphaGo did to Go. nature.com/articles/s41467-0…

Propagation and preservation of AI-discovered problem-solving strategies in human culture

Nature Communications - AI can uncover problem-solving strategies beyond human discovery. Here, the authors show that AI-discovered strategies propagate and persist in human populations, producing...

nature.com
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Brunel Psychology@BrunelPsyJul 14
1/ Some very nice CCE news 📢 A new Philosophical Transactions B theme issue on The evolution of collective intelligence is out, co-edited by @replicatedtypo from @Bruneluni Psychology 🧠🧬👇 royalsocietypublishing.org/r…
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Brunel Psychology@BrunelPsyJul 14
1/ New Brunel CCE commentary in Behavioral and Brain Sciences by @replicatedtypo and @matcharbonneau1 🧠🌍✨ “Subjective selection needs socially transmitted goals and culturally evolving problems” doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X251…
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So much for the wisdom of the crowd
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Huw Groucutt@huw_groucuttJun 9
Nice New Scientist piece discussing my research: newscientist.com/article/252…

What really happened when ancient humans migrated out of Africa | New Scientist

The out-of-Africa migration, in which ancient humans went on to inhabit every other continent except Antarctica, may not have been one moment in time, but a long and slow process. Columnist Michael...

newscientist.com
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Alex Bentley@ralexbentleyJan 17
My new book with Mike O’Brien is out: Collaborators through Time (Bloomsbury). How humans have partnered—with each other, other species, and technology—across two million years, with AI as our latest collaborator. Amazon: amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0FTFCXCD…
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Cody Moser@LTF_011 Dec 2025
New pre-print with @psmaldino on an agent-based model of propaganda in online spaces. Using the voter model from physics, we simulate networks with stubborn agents (zealots) who do not change their opinions, asking about their optimal positioning for influencing the network.
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Curious about what evolutionary psychology and cultural evolution say about digital media? Here’s the latest (final?) version of our chapter with @Arkyfish for the upcoming EHBEA textbook "Evolution, Culture and Human Behaviour". osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/6z…

Digital Media

This chapter harnesses the explanatory power of an evolutionary perspective, integrating both evolutionary psychology and cultural evolution, to examine digital media’s effects on wellbeing, cooper...

osf.io
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It is the time of the year when I tell you about my favorite post-doc ever 👇 Unless you are allergic to the French, this one sits up there with the Nuffield and EUI postdocs (life style, productivity, interdisciplinary stimulation). Share widely! Apply! iast.fr/research-fellowships

IAST Research Fellowships | Toulouse School of Economics

tse-fr.eu
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Finally out: "The role of play in language structure, acquisition and evolution" compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.… 👆A great collaboration with @symbolicstorage & @hartmast 👆A view of the nature and origins of language structure and patterns of use, as a result of our proclivity to play
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Distributed cognition meets cultural evolution cell.com/trends/cognitive-sc…

Complex technology requires cultural innovations for distributing cognition

Over the last decade, new research has shown how human collectives can develop technologies that no single individual could discover on their own. However, this research often overlooks how technol...

cell.com
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We're back!
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The Anh Han@T_A_Han6 Aug 2025
Excited to share our new paper in Proceedings of @royalsociety The Royal Society A. We've discovered a fascinating link between evolutionary game theory and random polynomials. royalsocietypublishing.org/d… @TeessideUni @TeesUniSCEDT
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"Solving the Longitude Puzzle: A Story of Clocks, Ships and Cities," fascinating new paper at the @JIntlEcon by Miotto and Pascali 🚢🕰️Study one of most transformative inventions of modern era—the marine chronometer—and its role in shaping global navigation and urban development
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🚨🚨 New preprint 📜 with Mathieu Charbonneau (@matcharbonneau1): Modelling the emergence of open-ended technological evolution (arxiv.org/abs/2508.04828). Feedback welcomed! #Evolution #Technology #Culture #OpenEnded #TechnologicalEvolution #CulturalEvolution 🧵: 1/29
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Broadly supportive of stating clearly that a study is a model. I did so myself recently: xitter.cf/replicatedtypo/status/…. BUT... I'm skeptical that adding "in a model" would have had any impact here. It's published in the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 🤷‍♂️
Papers that should say "...in a model"@in_a_model25 Feb 2025
A classic example of language that does not distinguish between what is true in a model and in reality. This paper has had huge circulation among narrow nationalists (e.g. in Russia). The authors of this (otherwise fine) paper did not intend this. jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/16/3/…
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Still, similar issues exist in domains that try to deal with "real" world data, e.g., the dangers of spurious correlations (journals.plos.org/plosone/ar…) or the thoroughly documented replicability and reproducibility issues in experimental approaches.

Linguistic Diversity and Traffic Accidents: Lessons from Statistical Studies of Cultural Traits

The recent proliferation of digital databases of cultural and linguistic data, together with new statistical techniques becoming available has lead to a rise in so-called nomothetic studies [1]–[8]....

journals.plos.org
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And, in my personal experience and area of study, models are generally met with far more skepticism than correlational or experimental approaches. Admittedly, this is in an academic setting as opposed to a general audience one.
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