“Everything Evolves” and the Generalised Evolutionary Theory with Professor Mark Vellend

About this episode

This episode discusses the broader implications of evolutionary theory beyond biology with Professor Mark Vellend.

The idea that evolutionary theory applies far beyond biology is not new. Yet one major obstacle to the broader acceptance of a generalised evolutionary theory is our tendency to begin with biology and extend outward from it. This approach obscures an important historical fact. Long before scientists developed theories to explain the evolution of life, scholars in fields such as linguistics, economics, and technology had already proposed ideas about change that were evolutionary in the modern sense. The evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould even suggested that “Darwin may have cribbed the idea of natural selection from economics.” Beginning with biology can create the misleading impression that evolutionary processes in areas such as language, technology, or economics are weaker or derivative forms of evolution. In reality, evolutionary processes are largely independent of the substrate on which they operate. They generate diverse outcomes—organisms, technologies, and cultural practices—that are well adapted to particular functions. In his book Everything Evolves: Why Evolution Explains More than We Think, from Proteins to Politics, Professor Mark Vellend shows how evolutionary…

People in this episode

Host: Dr Waseem Akhtar

Guest: Professor Mark Vellend

Topics covered

• evolutionary theory
• generalised evolution
• cultural evolution
• technology
• economics
• practical applications of evolution

Keywords

• evolution
• biology
• linguistics
• economics
• technology
• cultural practices
• artificial intelligence
• global food supply

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Everything Evolves: Why Evolution Explains More than We Think

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