It’s been suggested that the Flynn effect is mostly a matter of people learning a kind of abstract reasoning that’s useful in the modern world, but wasn’t so useful previously.
There’s also a broader point to be made about why evolution would’ve built humans to be able to benefit from better software in the first place, that involves the cognitive niche hypothesis. Hmmm… I may need to do a post on the cognitive niche hypothesis at some point.
There’s also a broader point to be made about why evolution would’ve built humans to be able to benefit from better software in the first place, that involves the cognitive niche hypothesis.
Slow-reproducing organisms often use rapidly-reproducing symbiotes to help them adapt to local environments.
Ah, that’s a good way to put it. But it should lead us to question the value of “software” improvements that aren’t about being better-adapted to the local environment.
It’s been suggested that the Flynn effect is mostly a matter of people learning a kind of abstract reasoning that’s useful in the modern world, but wasn’t so useful previously.
There’s also a broader point to be made about why evolution would’ve built humans to be able to benefit from better software in the first place, that involves the cognitive niche hypothesis. Hmmm… I may need to do a post on the cognitive niche hypothesis at some point.
I think we understand why humans are built like that. Slow-reproducing organisms often use rapidly-reproducing symbiotes to help them adapt to local environments. Humans using cultural symbionts to adapt to local regions of space-time is a special case of this general principle.
Instead of the cognitive niche, the cultural niche seems more relevant to humans.
Ah, that’s a good way to put it. But it should lead us to question the value of “software” improvements that aren’t about being better-adapted to the local environment.