Some thoughts about secular stagnation | 107 comments (107 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: animal economics (none / 0)

It's the case 3 for you, then: An archeological site were tools associated to chimps are found on a 4000 years duration. These tools are still used by chimps.

Anyway: a knowledge exists in the brain of an individual (who has learned it). If this individual, chimp or human, do not teach it, then it is lost. Otherwise it is transmitted. Chances are that the second individual will be young (study about learning age 3-5 for chimps), so will survive its teacher: if he becomes a teacher in his time, then the knowledge has been transmitted to the next generation.

Does knowledge exists independently from a living mind? This is a philosophical question I do not have an answer to.

by Xavier in Paris on Fri Nov 22nd, 2013 at 09:31:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: animal economics (none / 0)

As I said - tool use is not the point. But you're not understanding the difference, so never mind.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sun Nov 24th, 2013 at 01:06:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: animal economics (none / 0)

I understood you were talking about the transmission of knowledge in time.

That's the third paper, talking about continuous transmission attested by archeological evidence during a period of time.

If you're restraining your though to transmission through a media like writing, recording and so on, then what about human oral cultures or pre-historical ones?

I feel the limit is much more tenuous and that it may be impossible to find something other than a difference in degree (of intelligence, communication, culture...) between species that are akin to ours.

by Xavier in Paris on Mon Nov 25th, 2013 at 06:33:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: animal economics (none / 0)

I'm sorry if i didn't understood well your meaning.

by Xavier in Paris on Mon Nov 25th, 2013 at 06:35:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: animal economics (none / 1)

The line goes:

personal memory -> shared herd memory -> external persistent shared memory -> abstracted external shared memory.

Each is a superclass of the previous one, and the differentiator - as I said - is that once memory is externalised, face to face transmission is no longer required, and it also becomes possible to symbolically abstract, summarise, model and share experience without having to living it personally.

That's a difference in kind, not a difference in degree. It took humans a long time to invent it, but once it was invented it made a lot of other things possible, including brain tools like computers, which not only store information outside of individual experience, but can leverage innate intelligence in novel ways.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Mon Nov 25th, 2013 at 07:04:08 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: animal economics (4.00 / 3)

In addition, it means that when aggressive males manage to kill themselves off, their cultural influence does not die with them, but persists and can be relearned by future generations. Which means we're worse off than baboons.

Specifically, I'm thinking of the theory that European post-WWII Social Democracy is a consequence of two world wars in 30 years decimating the male minitaristic elite. But the effect of that did not survive the coming of age (1980s) of the generation born after WWII (1950s), because they could learn toxic culture from the "classic" writings of dead people.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Nov 25th, 2013 at 07:10:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: animal economics (4.00 / 4)

The corollary is that you don't change culture by persuading individuals, you persuade individuals by changing culture.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Mon Nov 25th, 2013 at 07:32:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: animal economics (none / 0)

And what likely happened after WW II was that there was insufficient change in the underlying culture. Likely insufficient account was taken of the ability of the females and older generations of males to transmit the negative cultural traits that were attenuated in their expression after WW II by the reduction of living males in the 20-40 year old age group. So when more normal population demographics reappeared so did the traits that had led to them being skewed in the first place.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Mon Nov 25th, 2013 at 07:54:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Some thoughts about secular stagnation | 107 comments (107 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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