Robert Boyd (having a huge picture of Pete Richerson behind him, who also sits in the audience) reflects on them starting the whole Cultural Evolution Thing. So amazing to hear their story, esp. since this work inspired me soo much.

Our host turns speaker: @matcharbonneau.bsky.social on how open-ended cumulative cultural evolution works

Speed-running between amazing sessions at #CES2026 and different perspectives on shared cultural evolutionary questions feels like my life now. Some highlights from day #2.

In the first talk after lunch, @juliejebeile.bsky.social proposed examining model transfer through the lens of idealizations, suggesting that what is often transferred is an idealization itself, used as a tool to transform descriptions into calculation devices and applicable across various domains

Thanks to all speakers, presenters, guests & helpers for making this event (organized by Edoardo & me) possible. I have learned so much and even more to think about. Very stimulating!

The workshop continues with a talk by @thomasreydon.bsky.social discussing the challenges of explanatory unification across the biological and social sciences based on evolutionary models

We begin the second day of the workshop with a talk by @hanneand.bsky.social on interdisciplinary research, its forms, challenges, and role in scientific progress

Christine Caldwell gave a talk in which, drawing on experimental evidence. she explored limits on the applicability of models from genetic evolution to cultural transmission, depending on whether payoffs are determined primarily by external pressures or endogenous coordination benefits

The workshop continued with a talk by @acerbialberto.com on the cultural ecology of social media, suggesting to take into account producers’ goals when explaining social media dynamics and thus reframing debates on misinformation, radicalisation and polarisation (preprint: osf.io/preprints/so...)

In this thread, we’ll be live-posting highlights from the “Scientific Progress via Model Transfer: The Case of Cultural Evolution” workshop talks. Follow along for updates 👇

The workshop "Scientific Progress via Model Transfer: The Case of Cultural Evolution", organized by @karimbaraghith.bsky.social and our team member Edoardo Peruzzi (co-financed by @erc.europa.eu and @dfg.de), has just begun! #FrontierResearch #ERCStG #DFG See link below for details ⬇️

@lucasgautheron.bsky.social gave a talk, prepared with @norijacoby.bsky.social and Hannah Rubin, which examined how popularity feedback can reduce diversity and slow innovation in science, based a large-scale online experiment (see arxiv.org/abs/2602.09997). We'll continue after the lunch break!

@matcharbonneau.bsky.social continued the workshop with a talk arguing that human problem-solving can be understood through cultural evolution theory, and outlining an appropriate transfer strategy between biological evolution and the evolution of problem-representation spaces

🔥 This wonderful workshop on Scientific Progress via Model Transfer perfectly organized by Karim Baraghith and our own Edoardo Peruzzi started. 2 days of talks and posters that discuss the case of cultural evolution as a case of model transfer. But is it also progressive? @modeltransfer.bsky.social

Now out: Cultural evolution and Social Ontology: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Routledge), edited by Martina Valković and me. Available (with discount code below) at: www.routledge.com/Cultural-Evo...

Check out my new paper on the explanatory strenght of network models used in evolutionary sciences. Here is the link: rdcu.be/e7ZWj

CfP for a Workshop on "Scientific Progress via Model Transfer? The Case of Cultural Evolution", April 2026 in Hannover 👇 #philsci #philsky

Check out the new paper by Christian Feldbacher-Escamilla and me, in which we demonstrate how Cultural Evolutionary Psychology (CEP) distinguishes itself from its predecessors —Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Evolutionary Theory —and why CEP represents a distinctive generalization of both.