Bret Beheim
@babeheim.bsky.social
cultural evolution, behavioral ecology, math models, data provenance, MOSAIC group leader @ Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology + faculty at the Leipzig School of Human Origins https://babeheim.com/
welcome to the future, it sucks ass
November 6, 2025 at 9:28 AM
welcome to the future, it sucks ass
Consistent with other recent work in cultural evolution, there's also strong evidence of an inverse-U relationship between player community size and behavioral diversity. The most diverse era in the game was characterized by many small groups, versus the modern game.
September 16, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Consistent with other recent work in cultural evolution, there's also strong evidence of an inverse-U relationship between player community size and behavioral diversity. The most diverse era in the game was characterized by many small groups, versus the modern game.
AI has introduced a lot of new moves into the game tree and defied a lot of conventional wisdom, but overall the families of strategies have only changed incrementally post-AlphaGo.
September 16, 2025 at 2:04 PM
AI has introduced a lot of new moves into the game tree and defied a lot of conventional wisdom, but overall the families of strategies have only changed incrementally post-AlphaGo.
Even though superhuman Go AI like AlphaGo have led to a measurable increase in innovation, player skill and move diversity, in the full context of historical time, the disruptiveness of AI has so far been pretty minor!
September 16, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Even though superhuman Go AI like AlphaGo have led to a measurable increase in innovation, player skill and move diversity, in the full context of historical time, the disruptiveness of AI has so far been pretty minor!
Zooming in, it's clear the tempo of evolutionary change has increased since the arrival of the internet, with faster turnover and lower strategic diversity.
September 16, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Zooming in, it's clear the tempo of evolutionary change has increased since the arrival of the internet, with faster turnover and lower strategic diversity.
The diversity of opening moves ebbs and flows with world events; industrialization, revolution and the arrival of the internet all have measurable impacts on the information ecology and strategic repertoires of high-level players
September 16, 2025 at 2:04 PM
The diversity of opening moves ebbs and flows with world events; industrialization, revolution and the arrival of the internet all have measurable impacts on the information ecology and strategic repertoires of high-level players
Using sequence alignment algorithms on historical game records, we can identify families of opening strategies, and track how they rise and fall in popularity over the centuries. Here are the most common opening sequences as a decision tree, from the 1600s up until World War II.
September 16, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Using sequence alignment algorithms on historical game records, we can identify families of opening strategies, and track how they rise and fall in popularity over the centuries. Here are the most common opening sequences as a decision tree, from the 1600s up until World War II.
How to quantify the impact of AI on long-run cultural evolution? Published today, I give it a go!
400+ years of strategic dynamics in the game of Go (Baduk/Weiqi), from feudalism to AlphaGo!
400+ years of strategic dynamics in the game of Go (Baduk/Weiqi), from feudalism to AlphaGo!
September 16, 2025 at 2:04 PM
How to quantify the impact of AI on long-run cultural evolution? Published today, I give it a go!
400+ years of strategic dynamics in the game of Go (Baduk/Weiqi), from feudalism to AlphaGo!
400+ years of strategic dynamics in the game of Go (Baduk/Weiqi), from feudalism to AlphaGo!
last update: 48 years ago lol
September 4, 2025 at 12:37 PM
last update: 48 years ago lol
Your restraint is a model for us all 😅
Incidentally, this paper largely wouldn't exist without your Current Biology paper on sequence alignment algorithms, which is a huge advance for cultural evolution. Getting to this MDS plot suddenly made a lot of stuff make sense in Go.
Incidentally, this paper largely wouldn't exist without your Current Biology paper on sequence alignment algorithms, which is a huge advance for cultural evolution. Getting to this MDS plot suddenly made a lot of stuff make sense in Go.
August 27, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Your restraint is a model for us all 😅
Incidentally, this paper largely wouldn't exist without your Current Biology paper on sequence alignment algorithms, which is a huge advance for cultural evolution. Getting to this MDS plot suddenly made a lot of stuff make sense in Go.
Incidentally, this paper largely wouldn't exist without your Current Biology paper on sequence alignment algorithms, which is a huge advance for cultural evolution. Getting to this MDS plot suddenly made a lot of stuff make sense in Go.
Yes, that's right, this one:
July 16, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Yes, that's right, this one:
I'm playing around with the decision tree for professional openings in the game of Go, and I've almost re-created the @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social logo
July 14, 2025 at 11:43 AM
I'm playing around with the decision tree for professional openings in the game of Go, and I've almost re-created the @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social logo
I learned of this critique from David Freedman's excellent textbook "Statistical Models", where the above mortality table is also from, and think about it pretty much all the time.
June 9, 2025 at 3:51 PM
I learned of this critique from David Freedman's excellent textbook "Statistical Models", where the above mortality table is also from, and think about it pretty much all the time.
The difference was absolutely *massive*. Households getting dirty, cholera-filled wastewater from downriver of the city experienced like a 10-fold increase in mortality from cholera. The case was made that it was something in the water, with very clever reasoning and purely observational data.
June 9, 2025 at 3:50 PM
The difference was absolutely *massive*. Households getting dirty, cholera-filled wastewater from downriver of the city experienced like a 10-fold increase in mortality from cholera. The case was made that it was something in the water, with very clever reasoning and purely observational data.
Basically, he noticed that in the 1850s, the Vauxhall and Lambeth water companies serviced the same London neighborhoods, even the same city blocks, but drew their water from different parts of the Thames (upriver and downriver of the city center). Can you see where this is going?
June 9, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Basically, he noticed that in the 1850s, the Vauxhall and Lambeth water companies serviced the same London neighborhoods, even the same city blocks, but drew their water from different parts of the Thames (upriver and downriver of the city center). Can you see where this is going?
Snow himself understood the flaws in the Soho study, and looked for more convincing evidence than a spatial correlation and dubious intervention. So what can we teach instead? I think Snow's second study of London water companies from his book, which had a huge contemporary impact on public health.
June 9, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Snow himself understood the flaws in the Soho study, and looked for more convincing evidence than a spatial correlation and dubious intervention. So what can we teach instead? I think Snow's second study of London water companies from his book, which had a huge contemporary impact on public health.
The effect of removing the pump handle isn't admissible evidence either - as Snow himself relates in his book, he removed the pump handle *after* the outbreak was over.
June 9, 2025 at 3:44 PM
The effect of removing the pump handle isn't admissible evidence either - as Snow himself relates in his book, he removed the pump handle *after* the outbreak was over.
Yes Nintendo-Senpai, whatever you want
May 6, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Yes Nintendo-Senpai, whatever you want
extremely concerning
April 28, 2025 at 10:45 AM
extremely concerning
My daughters' friends weren't understanding her incessant FE: Three Houses stories, so (entirely on her own) she made a powerpoint presentation explaining the political context of Faerghus and the age breakdown of the Gaareg Mach Monastary student body.
April 24, 2025 at 4:11 PM
My daughters' friends weren't understanding her incessant FE: Three Houses stories, so (entirely on her own) she made a powerpoint presentation explaining the political context of Faerghus and the age breakdown of the Gaareg Mach Monastary student body.
I'm only a SDK myself, but I suspect that what's going on with the Sanrensei and other joseki is that there's certain "hotspots" within the game tree which have been under rapid evolution because of superhuman AI.
April 22, 2025 at 6:20 AM
I'm only a SDK myself, but I suspect that what's going on with the Sanrensei and other joseki is that there's certain "hotspots" within the game tree which have been under rapid evolution because of superhuman AI.
If we do look at the entropy at move 3, 4, 5, etc. there's also a similar pattern: a large spike right after AlphaGo and then a return to pre-AI levels, which are much smaller than the 20th century levels. I've got a plan to include this new figure in the SI to bolster this point.
April 22, 2025 at 6:16 AM
If we do look at the entropy at move 3, 4, 5, etc. there's also a similar pattern: a large spike right after AlphaGo and then a return to pre-AI levels, which are much smaller than the 20th century levels. I've got a plan to include this new figure in the SI to bolster this point.
The basic answer for why to look at the first two moves is in the text, esp. Figure 2. Openings out to the first 50 moves tend to group nicely by knowing the first two moves, and when there's a big change in the first two moves the downstream consequences are huge.
April 22, 2025 at 6:16 AM
The basic answer for why to look at the first two moves is in the text, esp. Figure 2. Openings out to the first 50 moves tend to group nicely by knowing the first two moves, and when there's a big change in the first two moves the downstream consequences are huge.
🚨 New preprint! 🚨
I looked at 400+ years of cumulative cultural evolution in the Game of Go from feudalism to superhuman AI. Did AlphaGo etc. completely disrupt human play? No! More like human-machine convergence, rather than revolution.
Check out these decision trees!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
I looked at 400+ years of cumulative cultural evolution in the Game of Go from feudalism to superhuman AI. Did AlphaGo etc. completely disrupt human play? No! More like human-machine convergence, rather than revolution.
Check out these decision trees!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
April 9, 2025 at 5:35 PM
🚨 New preprint! 🚨
I looked at 400+ years of cumulative cultural evolution in the Game of Go from feudalism to superhuman AI. Did AlphaGo etc. completely disrupt human play? No! More like human-machine convergence, rather than revolution.
Check out these decision trees!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
I looked at 400+ years of cumulative cultural evolution in the Game of Go from feudalism to superhuman AI. Did AlphaGo etc. completely disrupt human play? No! More like human-machine convergence, rather than revolution.
Check out these decision trees!
osf.io/preprints/ps...