#412 Agner Fog: Cultural Evolution, Memetics, Politics and the Media

Jan 1, 2021

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Dr. Agner Fog is associate professor of computer science at Technical University of Denmark. Dr. Fog does research in Evolutionary Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Social systems and Computer Science. His current project is 'Theory of cultural change based on evolutionary psychology, evolutionary biology, and cultural evolution.' He’s the author of “Warlike and Peaceful Societies: The Interaction of Genes and Culture”, and “Cultural Selection”.

In this episode, we talk about cultural evolution. We start by comparing cultural evolution to biological evolution, and we then discuss memetics extensively. We talk about how science works from a cultural evolutionary perspective, the differences between genes and memes, and types of selection that cannot be expressed as memes. We get into media, social media, and fake news; and politics, and the power of money. We ask if cultural evolution is intelligent, how we can explain differing levels of conflict between societies, and how the environment influences social organization. We also go through the cultural evolution of different kinds of religion (animism, polytheism, and monotheism), and we ask if cultural evolution moves linearly, and if we still have empires.

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