#cultural evolution

Tagged cultural evolution · show all articles

A thatched roof under repair seen from the scaffold, one bay stripped to bare rafters and battens beside a finished dressed coat, with a single yealm of combed wheat reed sitting proud on the boundary course

Apprenticeship as Information Transfer

A technique survives only if it is copied faithfully enough to be improved upon. Thatching, transmission-chain experiments and the unsettled population-size debate show why craft skill has always travelled through people rather than pages.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 9, 2026 · 17 min read

Six foam cradles in a receding line on a linen-covered conservation table holding a flint flake, clay tablet, bronze gear, glass lens and a polished silicon wafer, with a populated circuit board hovering above the empty sixth cradle

Humanity & Technology

Humanity Has Always Been a Human–Technology System

From stone tools to AI agents, technology changes human capability through cumulative culture, institutions, and feedback—not through gadgets acting alone.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 8, 2026 · 11 min read

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