Equation 2 · The Bandwidth of Culture: Transmission Fidelity to 2100

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C_t

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the stock of cultural complexity in circulation at time t. Read the equation part by part below; each part has a contextual explanation and a link to its mathematical background.

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C_t

Symbol C_t

the stock of cultural complexity in circulation at time t.

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subscript

The lower label selects a particular version, component, or indexed member of the quantity. For example, x₀ and xₜ can be values at different positions.

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What the article says around this equation

Here $C_t$ is the stock of cultural complexity in circulation at time t ; $\rho_t$ $\in$ [0,1] is the transmission-fidelity coefficient — the share of $C_t$ that survives one round of copying, the same quantity Henrich’s Tasmania case shows collapsing when the effective transmitting population shrinks; $I_t$ is genuinely new human innovation entering the pool; and $L_t$ is loss from forgetting, obsolescence, or population decline. This is the formal skeleton underneath everything in the two sections above: print and the internet acted mainly by raising $\rho_t$ and the volume $I_t$ can reach an audience with; the telegraph and broadcast acted mainly by collapsing the delay between an addition to $I_t$ and its…

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Here $C_t$ is the stock of cultural complexity in circulation at time t ; $\rho_t$ $\in$ [0,1] is the transmission-fidelity coefficient — the share of $C_t$ that survives one round of copying, the same quantity Henrich’s Tasmania case shows collapsing when the effective transmitting population shrinks; $I_t$ is genuinely new human innovation entering the pool; and $L_t$ is loss from forgetting, obsolescence, or population decline. This is the formal skeleton underneath everything in the two sections above: print and the internet acted mainly by raising $\rho_t$ and the volume $I_t$ can reach an audience with; the telegraph and broadcast acted mainly by collapsing the delay between an addition to $I_t$ and its arrival everywhere else in the network.

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