March
31
/ 2022
Using the way computers function as a source for analogy, a new study has discovered common patterns of social and cultural organization that unite hunter-gatherer cultures around the world and through time. In this research project, the social structures of many modern hunter-gatherer groups were compared and contrasted. Certain universal patterns of organization were found, of a type that are familiar to computer scientists who study what are referred to as “small-world” network configurations. This type of network maximizes the efficiency of energy, and information flows within a relatively small physical space, producing an impressive collective computing power that can be used to solve complex problems of all types. The idea to apply a computer science concept to the study
