The continuing evolution of ultrasocial economic organization

Behav Brain Sci. 2016 Jan:39:e97. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X1500103X.

Abstract

Ultrasociality, as expressed in agricultural, monetary, and fossil fuel economies, has spurred exponential growth in population and in resource use that now threaten civilization. These threats take the form of prisoner's dilemmas. Avoiding collapse requires more cooperative economic organization that must be informed by knowledge of human behavior and cultural evolution. The evolution of a cooperative information economy is one possibility.

Publication types

  • Comment

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture*
  • Biological Evolution*
  • Cultural Evolution
  • Humans