Tim Waring

@twaring.bsky.social

1500 Followers 453 Following

I study the evolution of human culture with a focus on environmental behaviors and institutions and an eye toward helping these become more sustainable on a single, limited planet. https://timwaring.info/

One does not simply adapt via culture instead of genes and remain the same like start trek. Culture is a group phenomenon. Adopting it makes us more like the Borg than captain Picard.
A cyclical box-arrow figure showing a positive feedback between the fitness advantages of organized groups and the adaptive capacity of cultural inheritance.
A sticker on a shirt saying “Orono, I voted!”
Evolution of human groups in the Anthropocene. Intensity of cooperation within society (y-axis). Spatial scale of environmental control (x-axis). Both values have grown over evolution. Competition between societies tends to move societies up and right. Global sustainability requires Path A (right). But, under global collective challenges, competition between societies favors Path B (up, left).
The evolution of the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene may be the result of an evolutionary ratchet in human culture which has (a) favored larger and more extractive groups, and (b) produced complex and refined legal and technical systems for environmental control.
Characteristic processes of human evolution. An accelerating process of group-level cultural adaptation succinctly describes much of long-term human evolution. The theory is called the Evolutionary Transition in Inheritance and Individuality (ETII).