Organisms, organizations and interactions: an information theory approach to biocultural evolution

The language metaphor of theoretical biology, proposed by Waddington in 197 2, provides a basis for the formal examination of how different self-reprod ucing structures interact in an extended evolutionary context. Such interac tions have become central objects of study in fields ranging from human evo lution-genes and culture-to economics-firms, markets and technology. Here w e use the Shannon-McMillan Theorem, one of the fundamental asymptotic relat ions of probability theory, to study the 'weakest' and hence most universal , forms of interaction between generalized languages. We propose that the c o-evolving gene-culture structure that permits human ultra-sociality emerge d in a singular coagulation of genetic and cultural 'languages', in the gen eral sense of the word. Human populations have since hosted series of cultu re-only speciations and coagulations, events that, in this formulation, do not become mired in the 'meme' concept. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland L td. All rights reserved.