Information spreading and development of cultural centers

TL;DR

This paper presents a model linking information spreading to cultural development, suggesting that long-lived cultural centers are likely in geographically remote regions, based on historical European examples.

Contribution

It introduces a culture evolution model on a planar geometry that captures feedback between information dissemination and cultural stability, with insights into historical cultural centers.

Findings

Long-lived centers tend to be in remote regions.

Model aligns with European historical patterns.

Highlights importance of geographic factors in cultural persistence.

Abstract

The historical interplay between societies are governed by many factors, including in particular spreading of languages, religion and other symbolic traits. Cultural development, in turn, is coupled to emergence and maintenance of information spreading. Strong centralized cultures exist thanks to attention from their members, which faithfulness in turn relies on supply of information. Here, we discuss a culture evolution model on a planar geometry that takes into account aspects of the feedback between information spreading and its maintenance. Features of model are highlighted by comparing it to cultural spreading in ancient and medieval Europe, where it in particular suggests that long lived centers should be located in geographically remote regions.