SMITH, MAYNARD, EÖRS SZATHMÁRY, and ROBERT N. BRANDON. “Major Information Transitions in Social Evolution.” Darwin’s Conjecture: The Search for General Principles of Social and Economic Evolution (2010): 180.
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In this chapter, we sketch how social evolution has led to greater complexity. There are many important features of this story. Among these are a number of major transitions in the way information (above the genetic level) is transmitted, stored, and utilized. Each information transition has produced a major new class of replicator that can transmit, store, and utilize more complex social information. A few major information transitions in social evolution have transformed social life. They account for the evolution of prelinguistic culture, human language, tribal customs, writing and records, judicial laws, and the institutionalization of science and technology. We consider each of these transitions chronologically, from early humans to modern times.