Techno-Cultural Evolution

by Wallace, William McDonald

• ISBN13: 9781597971072
• ISBN10: 1597971073
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-30
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc

Summary

Evolution has long shaped human behavior. Yet just recently have we learned that evolution based on natural selection is not the continuous process Darwin assumed. It is instead a two-part process of change and stability called punctuated equilibrium, with natural selection operating mainly on the frontiers of change. Taking account of biology's latest understanding of evolution, it becomes clear that culture evolves by a similar process. This is important because over the past 30,000 years most human evolution and the behavioral changes that go with it have occurred in our cultures'not in our genes. Knowing the process by which culture evolves clarifies the origin of many of our current problems, both within and between cultures. The author contends that new technology drives cultural evolution much as mutations change our DNA. The problem is that technology is now coming at us so fast that it is inducing 'œcircuit overload' in cultures all over the world, leading to conflict. Techno-Cultural Evolution, which builds on the insights of such bestsellers as Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steeland Collapse, explains how this process works'”and what it means for all of us.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Introduction	p. xv
From Risen Ape to Human Techno-Culture
The FROCA Process of Cultural Evolution	p. 3
Climatic Crisis and the Risen Ape	p. 15
The Ice Ages and a Bigger Brain	p. 23
Techno-Culture Takes Over	p. 29
Early Farming to Despotic Civilization
Farming as a New Frontier	p. 41
Release and Exploitation: A Population Explosion	p. 49
Social Crash as Intra-Tribal Anarchy	p. 55
Adaptation through Despotic Civilization	p. 61
Equilibrium through Repressed Technology	p. 71
Empires Evolve to Quell Inter-Tribal Warfare	p. 79
Barbaric Disruption: The Fall of Rome	p. 87
From Dark Ages to Enlightenment
Feudalism Opens New Frontiers of Technology	p. 97
Europe Revives to Exploit Colonial Frontiers	p. 105
Democracy Challenges Despotism	p. 113
New Technologies Open Industrial Frontiers	p. 119
Opening the American Frontiers
America's New Frontier	p. 129
Clashing Founder Effects and the Civil War	p. 137
The High-Tech Frontier Takes Over	p. 143
America as Sole Superpower	p. 161
Technology and the Prospects for a Meta-Crash
Globalization and Its Discontents	p. 175
Resurgent High-Tech Tribalism and a Crash of the Western Alliance	p. 189
Technology and the Global Ecosystem	p. 195
A Post-Crash Theocracy for a Stable Global Ecosystem	p. 205
A More Hopeful Scenario	p. 215
Science and Evolution	p. 231
Autopoiesis: Toward an Integrated Theory of Human Behavior	p. 237
Notes	p. 247
Selected Bibliography	p. 255
Index	p. 261
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