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Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · 14d

Looks great! ToC here: mitp-content-server.mit.edu/books/conten...

Reposted by Mathieu Charbonneau

Adrian Currie @adrian-currie.bsky.social · 16d

Book launch for “Methods in the Philosophy of Science: a user’s guide”. Ftf in Exeter and online on the 29th of Sept feat Sophie Veigl, Kerry McKenzie, Hasok Chang, and me. It should be fun! (the book will be open access in July, contact me in the meantime) www.exeter.ac.uk/events/detai... #philsci

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Reposted by Mathieu Charbonneau

ces2026 @ces2026.bsky.social · 19d

We’re delighted to share that the CES2026 Conference website is now live!

We warmly invite researchers, scholars, and practitioners to submit their presentation proposals by November 16th through the submission portal on the website.

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Reposted by Mathieu Charbonneau

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 26d

Find out more on the new conference website: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026

Cultural Evolution Society 2026 Conference | Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique - FGSES

airess.fgses-um6p.ma

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Reposted by Mathieu Charbonneau

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 26d

Presentation submissions are open until November 16, with four submission formats: standard talks (15-20 minutes), lightning talks (5 minutes), poster presentations, and thematic sessions.

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Reposted by Mathieu Charbonneau

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 26d

The count down starts for #CESRabat! Follow @ces2026.bsky.social and join us May 11-13 next year for an exciting meeting in Rabat, Morocco.

Massive thanks to the #CESRabat organising committee:
Sarah Alami (co-chair)
Mathieu Charbonneau (co-chair)
Zachary Garfield
Edmond Seabright

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Reposted by Mathieu Charbonneau

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 26d

We are delighted to announce that the CES2026 conference website is now live! We invite you to submit your presentation proposals using the link on the webpage, deadline November 16th:
airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026

Cultural Evolution Society 2026 Conference | Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique - FGSES

airess.fgses-um6p.ma

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Reposted by Mathieu Charbonneau

James Winters @replicatedtypo.bsky.social · Aug 15

🚨🚨 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

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

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Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · Jun 2

8/8 This contributes to understanding human technological uniqueness *by identifying a mechanism and explaining the dynamics* that enable open-ended cultural evolution, how we escape the optimization traps that constrain other species and achieve truly unbounded technological development.

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Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · Jun 2

7/8 This process differs from cumulative optimization because it involves expanding the range of problems that can be solved (evolvability) rather than optimizing solutions to existing problems (adaptation). It's about accessing new problems, not just solving old ones better.

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Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · Jun 2

6/8 I propose a model for how cultural evolution of increasingly sophisticated cognitive technologies enables access to previously unreachable invention problems, driving open-ended technological change.

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Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · Jun 2

5/8 These inventions include further empowering cognitive technologies, creating a feedback loop. Inventors become increasingly capable of making themselves even more capable inventors. We literally make ourselves smarter at making ourselves smarter.

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Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · Jun 2

4/8 By inventing technologies that enhance cognition, we become able to invent technologies that would have been impossible using only our core (non-cultural) cognitive abilities. Writing, math, measuring tools—these expand what our minds can accomplish.

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Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · Jun 2

3/8 My argument: human open-ended technological evolution emerges from cultural evolutionary bootstrapping of our inventive capabilities through cognitive technologies. We invent technologies that enhance our cognitive capabilities.

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Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · Jun 2

2/8 A puzzle (2): Yet humans are capable of open-ended or evolvable technological change: we generate novel and useful technological solutions for an ever-expanding set of increasingly complex problems. But how are novel problems of increasing complexity accessed?

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Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · Jun 2

1/8 🧵 A puzzle (1): While cumulative improvement explains how specific technological traditions get increasingly better at solving pre-existing problems, it's fundamentally an optimization process, one which halts when an optimal solution is found (optimization trap).

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Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · Jun 2

New paper out in Topics in Cognitive Science! "Open-Ended Technological Evolution: The Co-Evolution of Invention and Cognitive Technologies" 🧵
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Open‐Ended Technological Evolution: The Co‐Evolution of Invention and Cognitive Technologies

Open-ended technological evolution is the result of the co-evolution of invention and cognitive technologies that enhances our cognitive capabilities and generates a feedback loop of ever-expanding t....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Mathieu Charbonneau

Shumon T. Hussain @shumon.bsky.social · May 3

There is a job opening (Post-Doctoral Research Associate, 2 years, 100%) in my new VW project on the macro-evolution of Pleistocene technological ecosystems in Europe: ecolithic.uni-koeln.de/opportunitie...

Deadline 25.05.2025

Please distribute widely!
🏺🦣

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Reposted by Mathieu Charbonneau

Zach Garfield @zhgarfield.com · Apr 11

With @sheinalew.bsky.social: Teaching is associated with the transmission of opaque culture and leadership across 23 egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies, in @naturecomms.bsky.social

#evolution #culture 🧪 #LeadSciSky #CultEvo

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Quote: " In sum, leader-directed teaching of opaque cooperative norms would be a mutually beneficial strategy, where the costs incurred by influential teachers are, at least partly, outweighed by the long-term benefits of cultivating cooperation within the group."

Mosaic plot illustrating the relationship between evidence for teaching and non-teaching social learning, based on a binary researcher-coded measure of teaching.

"Although instrumental cultural transmission frequently occurs through both teaching and non-teaching social learning, opaque cultural information is predominantly transmitted through teaching, with relatively fewer instances of non-teaching social learning."

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Reposted by Mathieu Charbonneau

Alex Mesoudi @alexmesoudi.com · Nov 15

Announcement! The next @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social CES conference will be at UM6P in Rabat, Morocco, provisional dates 11-13th May 2026! Hosted by Mathieu Charbonneau, @sarahalami.bsky.social, @zhgarfield.com & @edseabright.bsky.social. Save the dates!

culturalevolutionsociety.org/news-and-eve...

Cultural Evolution Society 2026 Conference Announced - Cultural Evolution Society

culturalevolutionsociety.org

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Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · Nov 15

Looking forward to it!

Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · Nov 8

I see why you say 'smarter', but they seem to say, then: 'smarter = better inheritance system' no? So its not 'smarter' in terms of *producing* new variation (vs. intelligent invention), but rather in terms of being capable of *learning/transmitting* more various information, no?

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Reposted by Mathieu Charbonneau

Emma Suvi McEwen @emmasmcewen.bsky.social · Feb 29

Very pleased to announce that the first study from my PhD thesis is out now 🥳 with thanks to @ConstableMerryn
and all my other wonderful co-authors!
Chimpanzees exhibit a behavioural signature of human social coordination:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · Jan 19

I hope the volume will be at least as nourishing to read as it was to make.
Stay tuned.

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Mathieu Charbonneau @matcharbonneau.bsky.social · Jan 19

I will be making detailed threads about what it’s all about later on; but for now, what matters most is for you to know that the authors, through their original and important contributions, have brought a breath of fresh air, individually and collectively, to the study of technical change.

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