Collective computation and the emergence ofhunter-gatherer small-worlds

Abstract

Two defining features of human sociality are large brains with neurally-dense cerebral cortices and the propensity to form complex social networks with non-kin. Large brains and the social networks in which they are embedded facilitate flows of fitness-enhancing information at multiple scales, but are also energetically expensive. In this paper, we consider how flows of energy and information interact to shape the macroscopic features of hunter-gatherer socioecology. Collective computation is the processing of information by complex adaptive systems to generate inferences in order to solve adaptive problems. In hunter-gatherer societies the adaptive problem is how to maximize fitness by optimizing information processing given the energy constraints of complex environments. The solution is the emergent macroscopic structure of the socioecology. Here we show how computation is extended across social networks to form the decentralized knowledge systems characteristic of hunter-gatherer societies. Data show that hunter-gatherer bands of co-residing families constitute computationally powerful networks that are embedded within hierarchically modular social networks that form complex metapopulations bound by fission-fusion dynamics at multiple scales facilitating the flow of information far beyond local interactions. These dynamics lead to the emergence of hunter-gatherer small-worlds where highly clustered local interactions are embedded within much larger, but sparsely connected metapopulations. Hunter-gatherers optimize local energy budgets in small groups but maintain interactions with much larger social networks while avoiding many of the ecological costs.