Epistemic Natural Selection

hyp. Natural selection (NS) is not just in biology but is present in every situation where:

1. Entities (species) interact with an environment (ecosystem)
2. Entities undergo random changes in component (genome)
3. Environment selects for “fit” entities and kills the remainder This applies also to ideas and knowledge: def. Epistemic Natural Selection (ENS) is the occurrence of natural selection in the human pursuit of knowledge. This occurs in two layers:
4. ENS-1 Evolution of Ideas in Social Institutions of Knowledge (SIK)
   1. Ideas interact with SIKs—temple, church, university, etc.
   2. Ideas undergo random mutation
   3. SIKs selects for entities that aligns with their ideology/rules
5. ENS-2 Evolution of SIKs itself. Compatible with Imre Lakatos’s Hard Core paradigm of scienctific research
   1. SIKs generate research programs (RPs) ← defined by Lakatos
   2. SIKs undergo random mutation due to academics leaving, etc.
   3. (Instrumentalism) Usefulness selects for SIKs that generate more useful ideas hyp. Natural Selection is the only way we know to build proper Ultra Complex Systems. Complexity of systems will always increase, but our thought/brain capacity is limited by physics, chemistry and biology. Thus to build objects more complex than our brains we must rely on natural selection instead.

Applications §

• hyp. Internet Selects for Attention (Attention is Currency). This Video Will Make You Angry - YouTube. On the internet ($\in$ SIK) ideas undergo ENS-1 with the internet selects for attention. Attention is chosen as the selective mechanism due to underlying capitalsm.
• Non-sciences also undergo ENS. Literature selects for works that are useful in the current social context, and ones that assist in perpetuating the current culture. Art selects for works that are “useful” in expression current human emotion and that resonates.
• To use this fact to direct evolution, we need SIKs that will remain useful, and that will also produce positive externalities in the process. dir. Society must encourage epidemic diversity and SIK diversity to promote better natural selection of ideas.