Mutual benefits of social learning and algorithmic mediation for cumulative culture
Agnieszka Czaplicka, Fabian Baumann, Iyad Rahwan

TL;DR
This paper explores how social learning and algorithmic mediation jointly influence the development of complex human culture, highlighting the importance of their interaction especially in less connected social networks.
Contribution
It introduces a model analyzing the combined effects of social learning and algorithmic mediation on cultural evolution, emphasizing their synergistic impact.
Findings
Algorithmic mediation affects cultural accumulation significantly.
Less dense social networks amplify the impact of algorithmic mediation.
Combining social learning and algorithms optimizes cultural growth.
Abstract
The remarkable ecological success of humans is often attributed to our ability to develop complex cultural artefacts that enable us to cope with environmental challenges. The evolution of complex culture (cumulative cultural evolution) is usually modelled as a collective process in which individuals invent new artefacts (innovation) and copy information from others (social learning). This classic picture overlooks the growing role of intelligent algorithms in the digital age (e.g. search engines, recommender systems and large language models) in mediating information between humans, with potential consequences for cumulative cultural evolution. Building on a previous model, we investigate the combined effects of network-based social learning and a simplistic version of algorithmic mediation on cultural accumulation. We find that algorithmic mediation significantly impacts cultural…
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Taxonomy
TopicsEducational Innovations and Challenges
