Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission in Human Societies

Whilst it seems plausible that evolution-like processes occur in human societies, and may be an important feature of them, it is also clear that these processes are not the same as those of biological evolution. In order to get beyond using evolution as a vague analogy for thinking about these processes, formal models are necessary. However the complexity of human interaction seems to indicate drastically simplified models will not be any better. It is argued that the way forward is to use more descriptive agent-based models based on evidence and then using these to see what bridges can be made to more abstract formal models. Some example models are described.

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