Humans are exceptional imitators. From infancy, neural systems prioritise social learning, language acquisition, and behavioural mirroring because copying is cheap, fast, and scalable compared to individual trial-and-error. Cultural transmission compounds this: ideas, habits, tools, symbols, and institutions propagate through imitation, modification, and re-imitation across generations. Genetic evolution provided the substrate, but memetic and cultural reproduction […]
People seem quite naturally biased towards the lowest common denominator of what is really the most absurd and idiotic of behaviours. I understand that this is hardly charitable but I’d say that this applies to all of us and even more so when we are unaware or in denial of it. Further to this, it […]
The most consequential questions are not those that (only) provide answers but that in so doing invoke many more questions, the most interesting and influential information or artefacts as entities and systems of communication are those that generate more of themselves, and the most successful technologies are those that generate more technologies.
Daedelus Kite 