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
The deadline has been extended - there is still time to get your abstracts in to join us in Morocco!
The submission deadline for #CESRabat has been extended to 30 November
@ces2026.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
@ces2026.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
👉 A reminder that the deadline for submitting your abstract to the CES 2026 #CESRabat is the 16th of November.
🔗Submit here: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026
We look forward to seeing you in Rabat!
🔗Submit here: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026
We look forward to seeing you in Rabat!
November 16, 2025 at 3:40 AM
The deadline has been extended - there is still time to get your abstracts in to join us in Morocco!
Reposted by James Winters
The submission deadline for #CESRabat has been extended to 30 November
@ces2026.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
@ces2026.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
👉 A reminder that the deadline for submitting your abstract to the CES 2026 #CESRabat is the 16th of November.
🔗Submit here: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026
We look forward to seeing you in Rabat!
🔗Submit here: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026
We look forward to seeing you in Rabat!
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.
We warmly invite researchers, scholars, and practitioners to submit their presentation proposals by November 16th through the submission portal on the website.
November 15, 2025 at 4:11 PM
The submission deadline for #CESRabat has been extended to 30 November
@ces2026.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
@ces2026.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
Reposted by James Winters
🚨Only 2 days left to apply
📢 Apply to our (2-year) research fellowships at @iast.fr
Join a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and indisciplinary group of scholars in Toulouse, walkable/cyclable pink city of chocolatines in the South of France.
Deadline: November 15, 2025.
www.iast.fr/research-fel...
Join a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and indisciplinary group of scholars in Toulouse, walkable/cyclable pink city of chocolatines in the South of France.
Deadline: November 15, 2025.
www.iast.fr/research-fel...
Research Fellowships
Each year, IAST invites applications for post-doctoral Research Fellowships, which offer candidates an opportunity to devote themselves full-time to their research at the start of their careers. Fello...
www.iast.fr
November 13, 2025 at 3:04 PM
🚨Only 2 days left to apply
Reposted by James Winters
🎉 New preprint: Bayesian Competence Inference guides Knowledge Attribution and Information search
If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?
If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?
November 13, 2025 at 5:16 PM
🎉 New preprint: Bayesian Competence Inference guides Knowledge Attribution and Information search
If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?
If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?
Reposted by James Winters
How “intelligent” is a slime mold? When it solves mazes, it might not be thinking:it’s obeying physics. Our new paper with
@jordiplam.bsky.social shows how it follows a least action principle,letting physics do the job arxiv.org/pdf/2511.08531
@drmichaellevin.bsky.social @docteur-drey.bsky.social
@jordiplam.bsky.social shows how it follows a least action principle,letting physics do the job arxiv.org/pdf/2511.08531
@drmichaellevin.bsky.social @docteur-drey.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 4:17 AM
How “intelligent” is a slime mold? When it solves mazes, it might not be thinking:it’s obeying physics. Our new paper with
@jordiplam.bsky.social shows how it follows a least action principle,letting physics do the job arxiv.org/pdf/2511.08531
@drmichaellevin.bsky.social @docteur-drey.bsky.social
@jordiplam.bsky.social shows how it follows a least action principle,letting physics do the job arxiv.org/pdf/2511.08531
@drmichaellevin.bsky.social @docteur-drey.bsky.social
Reposted by James Winters
Oops…“Principal components (PC) axes
identified by a PCA are not necessarily the most informative biologically. Nevertheless, paleoanthropologists frequently interpret proximity in PC space as indicative of morphological and thus evolutionary affinity or relatedness”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
identified by a PCA are not necessarily the most informative biologically. Nevertheless, paleoanthropologists frequently interpret proximity in PC space as indicative of morphological and thus evolutionary affinity or relatedness”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Principal Components Analysis fails to recover phylogenetic structure in hominins
Objectives Paleoanthropologists often utilize geometric morphometrics and principal components analysis (PCA) to interpret shape variation within the hominin fossil record. It is common practice to in...
www.biorxiv.org
November 8, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Oops…“Principal components (PC) axes
identified by a PCA are not necessarily the most informative biologically. Nevertheless, paleoanthropologists frequently interpret proximity in PC space as indicative of morphological and thus evolutionary affinity or relatedness”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
identified by a PCA are not necessarily the most informative biologically. Nevertheless, paleoanthropologists frequently interpret proximity in PC space as indicative of morphological and thus evolutionary affinity or relatedness”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by James Winters
🚨 New paper on ArXiv:
“Uncertainty quantification and posterior sampling for network reconstruction”
TL;DR; We present an efficient method to sample the entire ensemble of possible network reconstructions that are compatible with an indirect observation, e.g. a dynamics.
Short thread: 1/N
“Uncertainty quantification and posterior sampling for network reconstruction”
TL;DR; We present an efficient method to sample the entire ensemble of possible network reconstructions that are compatible with an indirect observation, e.g. a dynamics.
Short thread: 1/N
March 12, 2025 at 11:57 AM
🚨 New paper on ArXiv:
“Uncertainty quantification and posterior sampling for network reconstruction”
TL;DR; We present an efficient method to sample the entire ensemble of possible network reconstructions that are compatible with an indirect observation, e.g. a dynamics.
Short thread: 1/N
“Uncertainty quantification and posterior sampling for network reconstruction”
TL;DR; We present an efficient method to sample the entire ensemble of possible network reconstructions that are compatible with an indirect observation, e.g. a dynamics.
Short thread: 1/N
Reposted by James Winters
Is #innovation born or made? Why do some places keep innovating while others fall behind? Is innovation the product of cities—or of deeper laws?
Our new paper in npj Complexity explores these questions through the lens of a century of US patent data.🧵👇
nature.com/articles/s44...
Our new paper in npj Complexity explores these questions through the lens of a century of US patent data.🧵👇
nature.com/articles/s44...
November 3, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Is #innovation born or made? Why do some places keep innovating while others fall behind? Is innovation the product of cities—or of deeper laws?
Our new paper in npj Complexity explores these questions through the lens of a century of US patent data.🧵👇
nature.com/articles/s44...
Our new paper in npj Complexity explores these questions through the lens of a century of US patent data.🧵👇
nature.com/articles/s44...
Reposted by James Winters
Spoiler alert: it's better to have a good theoretical understanding and design appropriate statistical models than it is to throw zillions of superficially "okay, fine" models at a poorly specified (and often deliberately vague) target.
A bit of good thinking >>> lots of poor thinking.
Shocking!
A bit of good thinking >>> lots of poor thinking.
Shocking!
October 23, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Spoiler alert: it's better to have a good theoretical understanding and design appropriate statistical models than it is to throw zillions of superficially "okay, fine" models at a poorly specified (and often deliberately vague) target.
A bit of good thinking >>> lots of poor thinking.
Shocking!
A bit of good thinking >>> lots of poor thinking.
Shocking!
Reposted by James Winters
Paper in Language and Cognition with @marktorrance.bsky.social and @seriousstats.bsky.social
We show that semantic contrast shapes timing of pre-planning in speech and writing.
doi.org/10.1017/lang...
If you're into how context shapes how we plan language, check it out!
We show that semantic contrast shapes timing of pre-planning in speech and writing.
doi.org/10.1017/lang...
If you're into how context shapes how we plan language, check it out!
October 22, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Paper in Language and Cognition with @marktorrance.bsky.social and @seriousstats.bsky.social
We show that semantic contrast shapes timing of pre-planning in speech and writing.
doi.org/10.1017/lang...
If you're into how context shapes how we plan language, check it out!
We show that semantic contrast shapes timing of pre-planning in speech and writing.
doi.org/10.1017/lang...
If you're into how context shapes how we plan language, check it out!
Reposted by James Winters
UPDATE! 🎉
Cognitations has been awarded a Workshop Event Grant by @ehbea.bsky.social
This amazing grant will help us record new episodes with leading international experts in evolution, anthro & cog sci. Stay tuned in to hear from @manvir.bsky.social, @dansperber.bsky.social & many more!!!
Cognitations has been awarded a Workshop Event Grant by @ehbea.bsky.social
This amazing grant will help us record new episodes with leading international experts in evolution, anthro & cog sci. Stay tuned in to hear from @manvir.bsky.social, @dansperber.bsky.social & many more!!!
October 21, 2025 at 5:54 PM
UPDATE! 🎉
Cognitations has been awarded a Workshop Event Grant by @ehbea.bsky.social
This amazing grant will help us record new episodes with leading international experts in evolution, anthro & cog sci. Stay tuned in to hear from @manvir.bsky.social, @dansperber.bsky.social & many more!!!
Cognitations has been awarded a Workshop Event Grant by @ehbea.bsky.social
This amazing grant will help us record new episodes with leading international experts in evolution, anthro & cog sci. Stay tuned in to hear from @manvir.bsky.social, @dansperber.bsky.social & many more!!!
Reposted by James Winters
I haven’t read all the articles in this special issue on bases in numeration systems yet, but the ones I have read are excellent. royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/cur...
October 20, 2025 at 5:26 PM
I haven’t read all the articles in this special issue on bases in numeration systems yet, but the ones I have read are excellent. royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/cur...
Reposted by James Winters
Vincent Knight, Owen Campbell, Marc Harper, T. J. Gaffney, Nikoleta E. Glynatsi
Reviving, reproducing, and revisiting Axelrod's second tournament
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.15438
Reviving, reproducing, and revisiting Axelrod's second tournament
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.15438
October 20, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Vincent Knight, Owen Campbell, Marc Harper, T. J. Gaffney, Nikoleta E. Glynatsi
Reviving, reproducing, and revisiting Axelrod's second tournament
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.15438
Reviving, reproducing, and revisiting Axelrod's second tournament
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.15438
Reposted by James Winters
How do humans keep inventing tools and technologies that no single person could create alone?
Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
October 16, 2025 at 1:49 PM
How do humans keep inventing tools and technologies that no single person could create alone?
Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
Reposted by James Winters
Agreed! It was one of my 5 recommended books on cultural evolution here:
shepherd.com/best-books/c...
shepherd.com/best-books/c...
October 14, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Agreed! It was one of my 5 recommended books on cultural evolution here:
shepherd.com/best-books/c...
shepherd.com/best-books/c...
It was cool to see that Mokyr got the Nobel in economics. @antonhowes.bsky.social has a nice write up here: www.ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-inv...
Age of Invention: Joel Mokyr's Nobel
A triumph for history and the importance of ideas
www.ageofinvention.xyz
October 14, 2025 at 7:47 AM
It was cool to see that Mokyr got the Nobel in economics. @antonhowes.bsky.social has a nice write up here: www.ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-inv...
Reposted by James Winters
🚨New Preprint: We develop a novel task that probes counterfactual thinking without using counterfactual language, and that teases apart genuine counterfactual thinking from related forms of thinking. Using this task, we find that the ability for counterfactual thinking emerges around 5 years of age.
October 13, 2025 at 7:58 PM
🚨New Preprint: We develop a novel task that probes counterfactual thinking without using counterfactual language, and that teases apart genuine counterfactual thinking from related forms of thinking. Using this task, we find that the ability for counterfactual thinking emerges around 5 years of age.
Reposted by James Winters
Swipe up to try a new variant on Conway's Game of Life. And another. And another. This is how artificial-life researchers spread the joy after the #ALIFE2025 conference! They say it's like TikTok, but I wouldn't know.... ⚙️🧫 rulehunt.org?rulesetHex=7... #cellularautomata #gameoflife
October 11, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Swipe up to try a new variant on Conway's Game of Life. And another. And another. This is how artificial-life researchers spread the joy after the #ALIFE2025 conference! They say it's like TikTok, but I wouldn't know.... ⚙️🧫 rulehunt.org?rulesetHex=7... #cellularautomata #gameoflife
Reposted by James Winters
The Innovation Game: How Arcade Genres Evolve, Imitate, and Collapse
www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20... @blaividiella.bsky.social @andrejpaleo.bsky.social
www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20... @blaividiella.bsky.social @andrejpaleo.bsky.social
The Innovation Game: How Arcade Genres Evolve, Imitate, and Collapse « News# « Cambridge Core Blog
What can Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Mortal Kombat teach us about cultural evolution? In shopping malls of the 1970s, arcades were where people played digital games together, huddled around custom-bu...
www.cambridge.org
October 9, 2025 at 6:20 PM
The Innovation Game: How Arcade Genres Evolve, Imitate, and Collapse
www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20... @blaividiella.bsky.social @andrejpaleo.bsky.social
www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20... @blaividiella.bsky.social @andrejpaleo.bsky.social
Reposted by James Winters
⚠️Paper Alert!⚠️
Excited to share this paper with @roccoro.bsky.social where we examined whether ceramic technology in Saharan Africa was the result of a single or multiple episodes of innovation & diffusion
rdcu.be/eJi3g
Excited to share this paper with @roccoro.bsky.social where we examined whether ceramic technology in Saharan Africa was the result of a single or multiple episodes of innovation & diffusion
rdcu.be/eJi3g
Bayesian analyses of radiocarbon dates suggest multiple origins of ceramic technology in Early Holocene Africa
Nature Communications - Several possible points of origin have been proposed for the spread of ceramic technology in Saharan Africa between 11–10,000 years ago. Here, the authors...
rdcu.be
October 3, 2025 at 1:01 PM
⚠️Paper Alert!⚠️
Excited to share this paper with @roccoro.bsky.social where we examined whether ceramic technology in Saharan Africa was the result of a single or multiple episodes of innovation & diffusion
rdcu.be/eJi3g
Excited to share this paper with @roccoro.bsky.social where we examined whether ceramic technology in Saharan Africa was the result of a single or multiple episodes of innovation & diffusion
rdcu.be/eJi3g
Reposted by James Winters
🧵 1/ New paper from CCEs @rebeccasear.bsky.social led by @hggaddy.bsky.social with @anthrolog.bsky.social challenging some common assumptions about polygyny (there are many…)
it's open access 🔓 🧪 @brunelpsy.bsky.social
it's open access 🔓 🧪 @brunelpsy.bsky.social
High rates of polygyny do not lock large proportions of men out of the marriage market
www.pnas.org
October 6, 2025 at 1:59 PM
🧵 1/ New paper from CCEs @rebeccasear.bsky.social led by @hggaddy.bsky.social with @anthrolog.bsky.social challenging some common assumptions about polygyny (there are many…)
it's open access 🔓 🧪 @brunelpsy.bsky.social
it's open access 🔓 🧪 @brunelpsy.bsky.social
Reposted by James Winters
🌟 New preprint 🌟, by @olivia.science and me:
📝 Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025). *Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists*. doi.org/10.31234/osf...
🧪
📝 Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025). *Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists*. doi.org/10.31234/osf...
🧪
October 4, 2025 at 6:46 PM
🌟 New preprint 🌟, by @olivia.science and me:
📝 Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025). *Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists*. doi.org/10.31234/osf...
🧪
📝 Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025). *Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists*. doi.org/10.31234/osf...
🧪
Reposted by James Winters
For me this is a hard red line in psychological science. If you advocate the use of "silicon samples" you do not understand what it is we're supposed to be doing (and likely don't understand LLMs, or are a grifter). Luckily I haven't seen much of this among people I'd consider my peer group.
October 4, 2025 at 8:27 AM
For me this is a hard red line in psychological science. If you advocate the use of "silicon samples" you do not understand what it is we're supposed to be doing (and likely don't understand LLMs, or are a grifter). Luckily I haven't seen much of this among people I'd consider my peer group.
Reposted by James Winters
A paper by Josh Rule from my lab providing some formal tools for how to think about innateness -- and trying to pinpoint exactly why Fodor's claims that everything is innate is nonsense.
arxiv.org/abs/2505.18277
arxiv.org/abs/2505.18277
The end of radical concept nativism
Though humans seem to be remarkable learners, arguments in cognitive science and philosophy of mind have long maintained that learning something fundamentally new is impossible. Specifically, Jerry Fo...
arxiv.org
October 1, 2025 at 5:54 PM
A paper by Josh Rule from my lab providing some formal tools for how to think about innateness -- and trying to pinpoint exactly why Fodor's claims that everything is innate is nonsense.
arxiv.org/abs/2505.18277
arxiv.org/abs/2505.18277
Reposted by James Winters
What influences whether people have fun with a task?
Our paper “Leveling up fun: learning progress, expectations and success influence enjoyment in video games” with @thecharleywu.bsky.social and @ericschulz.bsky.social now in Scientific Reports!
rdcu.be/eI069
Paper summary below 1/4
Our paper “Leveling up fun: learning progress, expectations and success influence enjoyment in video games” with @thecharleywu.bsky.social and @ericschulz.bsky.social now in Scientific Reports!
rdcu.be/eI069
Paper summary below 1/4
Leveling up fun: learning progress, expectations, and success influence enjoyment in video games
Scientific Reports - Leveling up fun: learning progress, expectations, and success influence enjoyment in video games
rdcu.be
October 2, 2025 at 9:32 AM
What influences whether people have fun with a task?
Our paper “Leveling up fun: learning progress, expectations and success influence enjoyment in video games” with @thecharleywu.bsky.social and @ericschulz.bsky.social now in Scientific Reports!
rdcu.be/eI069
Paper summary below 1/4
Our paper “Leveling up fun: learning progress, expectations and success influence enjoyment in video games” with @thecharleywu.bsky.social and @ericschulz.bsky.social now in Scientific Reports!
rdcu.be/eI069
Paper summary below 1/4