James Winters
@replicatedtypo.bsky.social
Simulating sci-fi novels and calling it cultural evolution
Centre for Culture and Evolution | Brunel University London | https://j-winters.github.io
Centre for Culture and Evolution | Brunel University London | https://j-winters.github.io
Pinned
James Winters
@replicatedtypo.bsky.social
· Aug 15
Modelling the emergence of open-ended technological evolution
Humans stand alone in terms of their potential to collectively and cumulatively improve technologies in an open-ended manner. This open-endedness provides societies with the ability to continually exp...
arxiv.org
🚨🚨 New preprint 📜 with Mathieu Charbonneau (@matcharbonneau.bsky.social): Modelling the emergence of open-ended technological evolution (arxiv.org/abs/2508.04828). Feedback welcomed! #Evolution #Technology #Culture #OpenEnded #TechnologicalEvolution #CulturalEvolution 🧵: 1/29
Reposted by James Winters
Proud to present our latest work "Tracking human foragers and their prey reveals adaptive predator-prey dynamics", now hosted on BioRxiv! 🧵
doi.org/10.64898/202...
@ralfkurvers.bsky.social @scioi.bsky.social @arc-mpib.bsky.social @alexschakowski.bsky.social @dominikdeffner.bsky.social
doi.org/10.64898/202...
@ralfkurvers.bsky.social @scioi.bsky.social @arc-mpib.bsky.social @alexschakowski.bsky.social @dominikdeffner.bsky.social
September 25, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Proud to present our latest work "Tracking human foragers and their prey reveals adaptive predator-prey dynamics", now hosted on BioRxiv! 🧵
doi.org/10.64898/202...
@ralfkurvers.bsky.social @scioi.bsky.social @arc-mpib.bsky.social @alexschakowski.bsky.social @dominikdeffner.bsky.social
doi.org/10.64898/202...
@ralfkurvers.bsky.social @scioi.bsky.social @arc-mpib.bsky.social @alexschakowski.bsky.social @dominikdeffner.bsky.social
Reposted by James Winters
How did we humans become what we are? Why did we diverge from other primates and develop our culture? What role does copying (imitation) play in that process, and how do we compare to great apes today?
My interview with @ctennie.bsky.social explores these questions and more. Please check it out!
My interview with @ctennie.bsky.social explores these questions and more. Please check it out!
Humans from A to B
My interview with Dr. Claudio Tennie on how humans and great apes culturally diverged
buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com
September 24, 2026 at 12:20 PM
How did we humans become what we are? Why did we diverge from other primates and develop our culture? What role does copying (imitation) play in that process, and how do we compare to great apes today?
My interview with @ctennie.bsky.social explores these questions and more. Please check it out!
My interview with @ctennie.bsky.social explores these questions and more. Please check it out!
Reposted by James Winters
Now published in @natcomms.nature.com!
Using a 3D immersive-reality group experiment, we show how people integrate dynamically changing personal and social cues in realistic environments, resulting in either collective intelligence or maladaptive behavior!
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Using a 3D immersive-reality group experiment, we show how people integrate dynamically changing personal and social cues in realistic environments, resulting in either collective intelligence or maladaptive behavior!
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
September 24, 2026 at 6:21 AM
Now published in @natcomms.nature.com!
Using a 3D immersive-reality group experiment, we show how people integrate dynamically changing personal and social cues in realistic environments, resulting in either collective intelligence or maladaptive behavior!
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Using a 3D immersive-reality group experiment, we show how people integrate dynamically changing personal and social cues in realistic environments, resulting in either collective intelligence or maladaptive behavior!
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by James Winters
Join the DigiTS team in Tartu! PhD position in machine learning, LLMs & NLP annotation.
A great team pushing the #digitalhumanities #computationalhumanities agenda in a thoughtful way. A wonderful place to live and work! Estonia is pleasant, organized, easy to join!
digits.ut.ee/join-the-team/
A great team pushing the #digitalhumanities #computationalhumanities agenda in a thoughtful way. A wonderful place to live and work! Estonia is pleasant, organized, easy to join!
digits.ut.ee/join-the-team/
September 23, 2026 at 3:07 PM
Join the DigiTS team in Tartu! PhD position in machine learning, LLMs & NLP annotation.
A great team pushing the #digitalhumanities #computationalhumanities agenda in a thoughtful way. A wonderful place to live and work! Estonia is pleasant, organized, easy to join!
digits.ut.ee/join-the-team/
A great team pushing the #digitalhumanities #computationalhumanities agenda in a thoughtful way. A wonderful place to live and work! Estonia is pleasant, organized, easy to join!
digits.ut.ee/join-the-team/
Reposted by James Winters
Latest "ask a psychologist" podcast is out on the @Bruneluni psychology YouTube 📢
Today's star is Byron Creese whose research focuses on neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia 🧠
Today's star is Byron Creese whose research focuses on neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia 🧠
Alzheimer's Psychosis Explained: Hallucinations, Delusions, & Diagnosis | Ask a Psychologist
YouTube video by Psychology @ Brunel
youtu.be
September 19, 2026 at 7:29 AM
Latest "ask a psychologist" podcast is out on the @Bruneluni psychology YouTube 📢
Today's star is Byron Creese whose research focuses on neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia 🧠
Today's star is Byron Creese whose research focuses on neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia 🧠
Reposted by James Winters
Can self-interested, self-improving, self-replicating agents learn to cooperate?
Our new paper, Tapes Together Strong, shows they can: when social behavior, computation, and reproduction share one energy budget, cooperation evolves from scratch.
arxiv.org/abs/2609.10817 🧵
Our new paper, Tapes Together Strong, shows they can: when social behavior, computation, and reproduction share one energy budget, cooperation evolves from scratch.
arxiv.org/abs/2609.10817 🧵
September 11, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Can self-interested, self-improving, self-replicating agents learn to cooperate?
Our new paper, Tapes Together Strong, shows they can: when social behavior, computation, and reproduction share one energy budget, cooperation evolves from scratch.
arxiv.org/abs/2609.10817 🧵
Our new paper, Tapes Together Strong, shows they can: when social behavior, computation, and reproduction share one energy budget, cooperation evolves from scratch.
arxiv.org/abs/2609.10817 🧵
Reposted by James Winters
This is what I've been saying for years. That's also why I'm no more than lukewarm towards multiverse analyses on experimental data. If you're going to spend all that computational power, why not do it a priori so you can design the best experiment under well-articulated assumptions?
This is how we do modern frequentist statistics: Using fake-data simulation to understand what can happen in a study
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/09/14/t...
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/09/14/t...
This is how we do modern frequentist statistics: Using fake-data simulation to understand what can happen in a study | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu
September 14, 2026 at 2:15 PM
This is what I've been saying for years. That's also why I'm no more than lukewarm towards multiverse analyses on experimental data. If you're going to spend all that computational power, why not do it a priori so you can design the best experiment under well-articulated assumptions?
Reposted by James Winters
ACE Research Grant Alert 🚨!
CES will give out two awards of up to $3000 each to support early career research projects in cultural evolution. The award is open to applicants worldwide, with an application deadline of October 9th 2026, 9:00 AM AoE.
Applications: forms.gle/dsLdKQuNBH4W...
CES will give out two awards of up to $3000 each to support early career research projects in cultural evolution. The award is open to applicants worldwide, with an application deadline of October 9th 2026, 9:00 AM AoE.
Applications: forms.gle/dsLdKQuNBH4W...
ACE Early Career Research Grants
CES will give out two awards of up to $3000 each to support research projects in cultural evolution. To learn more about the Advancing Cultural Evolution (ACE) initiative, see here.
Deadline:
Appli...
forms.gle
September 14, 2026 at 7:58 AM
ACE Research Grant Alert 🚨!
CES will give out two awards of up to $3000 each to support early career research projects in cultural evolution. The award is open to applicants worldwide, with an application deadline of October 9th 2026, 9:00 AM AoE.
Applications: forms.gle/dsLdKQuNBH4W...
CES will give out two awards of up to $3000 each to support early career research projects in cultural evolution. The award is open to applicants worldwide, with an application deadline of October 9th 2026, 9:00 AM AoE.
Applications: forms.gle/dsLdKQuNBH4W...
Reposted by James Winters
“Life history theory is often invoked to make universal predictions about phenotypic evolution. Eg it’s conventional wisdom that organisms should evolve later first reproduction if they have longer lifespans. We clarify that LHT does not provide such universal predictions about phenotypic diversity”
today you should read my wacked out dissertation take on life history theory!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Developmental Axioms in Life History Evolution - Biological Theory
Life history theory is often invoked to make universal predictions about phenotypic evolution. For example, it is conventional wisdom that organisms should evolve older ages at first reproduction if t...
link.springer.com
September 13, 2026 at 6:28 AM
“Life history theory is often invoked to make universal predictions about phenotypic evolution. Eg it’s conventional wisdom that organisms should evolve later first reproduction if they have longer lifespans. We clarify that LHT does not provide such universal predictions about phenotypic diversity”
Reposted by James Winters
Our paper on the second plague pandemic is now finally published:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
We present 11 new Y. pestis genomes from around Europe and introduce a new approach to refine the dating of ancient genomes that helped us to contextualize 75 plague genomes of the Second Pandemic.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
We present 11 new Y. pestis genomes from around Europe and introduce a new approach to refine the dating of ancient genomes that helped us to contextualize 75 plague genomes of the Second Pandemic.
September 11, 2026 at 1:12 PM
Our paper on the second plague pandemic is now finally published:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
We present 11 new Y. pestis genomes from around Europe and introduce a new approach to refine the dating of ancient genomes that helped us to contextualize 75 plague genomes of the Second Pandemic.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
We present 11 new Y. pestis genomes from around Europe and introduce a new approach to refine the dating of ancient genomes that helped us to contextualize 75 plague genomes of the Second Pandemic.
Reposted by James Winters
Seconded. In my experience, Royal Society Publishing is a rare publisher which is genuinely committed to publishing rigorous science. If you want to get involved in the editorial process, I highly recommend them too
Royal Society is a wonderful organization with fantastic staff, 10/10!
Interested in joining the #RSOS editorial board? We seek enthusiastic & engaged Associate Editors who will perform a range of valuable tasks for the journal and the communities it serves. The application deadline is 30 October 2026. Find out more: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/pages/e...
September 11, 2026 at 4:47 PM
Seconded. In my experience, Royal Society Publishing is a rare publisher which is genuinely committed to publishing rigorous science. If you want to get involved in the editorial process, I highly recommend them too
Reposted by James Winters
While the Fields Medal celebrates the under-40s, the mathematician Joan Birman has, at the age of 99, solved a major open problem in representations of the Braid groups, a topic she has worked on for more than 60 years.
July 27, 2026 at 5:53 AM
While the Fields Medal celebrates the under-40s, the mathematician Joan Birman has, at the age of 99, solved a major open problem in representations of the Braid groups, a topic she has worked on for more than 60 years.
Reposted by James Winters
🚨New preprint with Fei Dai, @hanqizhou.bsky.social and @alisongopnik.bsky.social We extend empowerment (control over external states) by turning it inward. *Representational empowerment* asks which representations a learner should acquire and curate to solve future problems arxiv.org/abs/2609.02322
September 7, 2026 at 3:43 PM
🚨New preprint with Fei Dai, @hanqizhou.bsky.social and @alisongopnik.bsky.social We extend empowerment (control over external states) by turning it inward. *Representational empowerment* asks which representations a learner should acquire and curate to solve future problems arxiv.org/abs/2609.02322
Reposted by James Winters
Are you interested in lexical competition, agent-based modelling, strong inference and Ukrainian? Then this paper, just published in @pnasnexus.org, is for you.
With @oliviermorin.bsky.social and @sobchuk.bsky.social, we asked a simple question: why do some words become more common than others?
With @oliviermorin.bsky.social and @sobchuk.bsky.social, we asked a simple question: why do some words become more common than others?
September 7, 2026 at 12:52 PM
Are you interested in lexical competition, agent-based modelling, strong inference and Ukrainian? Then this paper, just published in @pnasnexus.org, is for you.
With @oliviermorin.bsky.social and @sobchuk.bsky.social, we asked a simple question: why do some words become more common than others?
With @oliviermorin.bsky.social and @sobchuk.bsky.social, we asked a simple question: why do some words become more common than others?
Reposted by James Winters
New tutorial preprint about simulation-based inference! Shows how to fit a cultural evo model to baby name data using approx Bayesian computation, random forests, and deep learning. Wrote for @eslr.bsky.social but wanted to share with others in @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social! :) osf.io/preprints/so...
OSF
osf.io
September 6, 2026 at 6:23 PM
New tutorial preprint about simulation-based inference! Shows how to fit a cultural evo model to baby name data using approx Bayesian computation, random forests, and deep learning. Wrote for @eslr.bsky.social but wanted to share with others in @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social! :) osf.io/preprints/so...
Reposted by James Winters
Our new preprint explores how increasing interaction between humans and artificial agents and is reshaping creativity, from the perspective of cultural evolution! @katieeeeeeeeeee.bsky.social @manuelangladatort.bsky.social @camrobjones.bsky.social @gemschedel.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2609.02620
Collective creativity in hybrid societies
Generative AI is changing how cultural artifacts are created and circulated, and with it our understanding of creativity itself. Researchers disagree about whether these tools enrich or impoverish cul...
arxiv.org
September 3, 2026 at 1:40 PM
Our new preprint explores how increasing interaction between humans and artificial agents and is reshaping creativity, from the perspective of cultural evolution! @katieeeeeeeeeee.bsky.social @manuelangladatort.bsky.social @camrobjones.bsky.social @gemschedel.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2609.02620
Reposted by James Winters
100 years of the "morph(eme)" – Bloomfield's foundational article came out in September 1926. dlc.hypotheses.org/4485
September 3, 2026 at 4:49 AM
100 years of the "morph(eme)" – Bloomfield's foundational article came out in September 1926. dlc.hypotheses.org/4485
Reposted by James Winters
🚨 8 months after, this paper found its home at Science Advances. We came up with a generative brain network model based on game theory and found that the human brain is suboptimal both in terms of wiring cost and communication efficiency. Here's why:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
September 2, 2026 at 6:32 PM
🚨 8 months after, this paper found its home at Science Advances. We came up with a generative brain network model based on game theory and found that the human brain is suboptimal both in terms of wiring cost and communication efficiency. Here's why:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by James Winters
Here I draw a circle by hand.
In a universe where it is the perfect circle- what does a sine wave look like? What is its value of pi?
In a universe where it is the perfect circle- what does a sine wave look like? What is its value of pi?
September 1, 2026 at 1:42 PM
Here I draw a circle by hand.
In a universe where it is the perfect circle- what does a sine wave look like? What is its value of pi?
In a universe where it is the perfect circle- what does a sine wave look like? What is its value of pi?
Reposted by James Winters
I did not know this: eBay ran field experiments turning off paid search ads on google and there was zero measurable effect on sales.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.3...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.3...
August 29, 2026 at 11:33 AM
I did not know this: eBay ran field experiments turning off paid search ads on google and there was zero measurable effect on sales.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.3...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.3...
Reposted by James Winters
Why do some goals spread across people and generations, while others emerge only transiently?
We argue that human goals are both drivers and products of cultural evolution: our individual pursuits are shaped by our cultural environments, and the goals we pursue in turn reshape those environments.
We argue that human goals are both drivers and products of cultural evolution: our individual pursuits are shaped by our cultural environments, and the goals we pursue in turn reshape those environments.
August 28, 2026 at 2:51 PM
Why do some goals spread across people and generations, while others emerge only transiently?
We argue that human goals are both drivers and products of cultural evolution: our individual pursuits are shaped by our cultural environments, and the goals we pursue in turn reshape those environments.
We argue that human goals are both drivers and products of cultural evolution: our individual pursuits are shaped by our cultural environments, and the goals we pursue in turn reshape those environments.
Hahaha
August 25, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Hahaha
Reposted by James Winters
A 2025 Science paper reported that bonobos combine calls to create new meanings.
We analyzed its stats and then reanalysed the data. --> The claim did not hold up.
Our paper (open access): doi.org/10.7717/peer...
With @johanlind.bsky.social @annajonand.bsky.social
We analyzed its stats and then reanalysed the data. --> The claim did not hold up.
Our paper (open access): doi.org/10.7717/peer...
With @johanlind.bsky.social @annajonand.bsky.social
August 24, 2026 at 6:29 AM
A 2025 Science paper reported that bonobos combine calls to create new meanings.
We analyzed its stats and then reanalysed the data. --> The claim did not hold up.
Our paper (open access): doi.org/10.7717/peer...
With @johanlind.bsky.social @annajonand.bsky.social
We analyzed its stats and then reanalysed the data. --> The claim did not hold up.
Our paper (open access): doi.org/10.7717/peer...
With @johanlind.bsky.social @annajonand.bsky.social
Reposted by James Winters
Spotted some #MathOfMario @clontz.org
You Can't Solve These Super Mario Bros. Levels: Undecidable Mario Games
We prove RE-completeness (and thus undecidability) of several 2D games in the Super Mario Bros. platform video game series: the New Super Mario Bros. series (original, Wii, U, and 2), and both Super M...
arxiv.org
August 18, 2026 at 3:14 PM
Spotted some #MathOfMario @clontz.org
Reposted by James Winters
We worry about homogenisation, but can AI also expand human culture? In a multi-generational experiment we demonstrate AI-induced cultural shifts. Machines lastingly shift human behavior, beyond their presence, just as AlphaGo did to Go.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Propagation and preservation of AI-discovered problem-solving strategies in human culture - Nature Communications
AI can uncover problem-solving strategies beyond human discovery. Here, the authors show that AI-discovered strategies propagate and persist in human populations, producing cultural shifts when non-tr...
www.nature.com
August 18, 2026 at 3:05 PM
We worry about homogenisation, but can AI also expand human culture? In a multi-generational experiment we demonstrate AI-induced cultural shifts. Machines lastingly shift human behavior, beyond their presence, just as AlphaGo did to Go.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...