Chapter from Prof. Gary Cziko's book "Without Miracles: Universal Selection Theory and the Second Darwinian Revolution."

Essays and weblog entries on various topics regarding human nature.

Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd argue that the specific mechanism by which humans mastered the Pleistocene is our capacity to evolve adaptations to the variation of Plio-Pleistocene environments via cultural traditions.

"The evolution of ethical systems is described in scientific terms using cybernetics as its logical foundation. A plausible theory of the integration of science and ethics." Online book

Site has three sections: the first is concerned with the evolution of the human capacity to construct signs; the second deals with Cultural-Historical Psychology; the third concerns theories and arguments about the evolution of brain, consciousness, language, and sociality.

The central hypothesis in this paper is that there were three major cognitive transformations by which the modern human mind emerged over several million years: 1) mimetic skill and autocueing, 2) lexical invention, 3) externalization of memory.

A web resource for those interested in evolution, cognition, synthetic life, artificial intelligence and general science that improves the human condition.

Paper on the engineering of highly complex large aggregates of intelligence-based systems in the real world environment.

Publications on cognition, artificial intelligence, robotics and information processing in the human brain.

A scholarly journal dedicated to the exploration, criticism, and development of Ren Girard's mimetic model of the relationship between violence and religion in the genesis and maintenance of culture.

Writings applying cognitive science to the study of literature and composition, including chapters from a book. Also includes links to other relevant material.

Research tool for exploring the relevance of the study of human cognition to communication and the arts. Features articles, discourse and bibliography.

Extensive site containing sections on evolution, "memory expansion" and brain research news.

Short annotated bibliography and link list related to theories of the global brain. "Society can be viewed as a multicellular organism, with individuals in the role of the cells. The network of communication channels connecting individuals then plays the role of a nervous system for this superorganism, i.e. a "global brain"."