*Please distribute to others who may be interested...*
You are hereby invited to the 8th weekly seminar in our seventh interdisciplinary series on Evolution, Complexity and Cognition<http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108>(ECCO). ** *Time*:* Friday, Dec, 17th* 14:00-16:00 p.m (note: this year, all seminars take place on Fridays, 14-16 pm, unless announced otherwise) *Place*: Room B 0.036 (building B, level 0, close to the human sciences computer rooms), on the VUB Campus Etterbeek (Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels), in collaboration with MOSI. Coffee available. Free entrance: everybody welcome! * * ------------------------------ *Economic exchange as an evolutionary transmission channel in human societiesBertin Bertin Martens<http://books.google.be/books?id=r7CbVtlfc0sC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bertin-martens&source=bl&ots=Amuu-Z3p_8&sig=oD4mkFDgiTLlVLJo5xe7zUU2RqU&hl=en&ei=7D7ATKDFLZm8jAe8xMSUCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CC8Q6AEwBw>(European Commission) * *Abstract: * This paper argues that the well-established channels of evolutionary transmission, such as (epi)genetic, cultural, symbolic and environmental transmission, are insufficient to explain the structure of modern human societies. Economic exchange of knowledge embodied in goods and services constitutes an additional transmission channel that makes more efficient use of limited human cognitive capacity. Economic exchange pushes human societies into cognitive specialisation among individuals. It also gradually shifts scarce cognitive resources away from production and into learning. Cognitive specialisation may constitute another “major transition” towards a higher level of aggregation in human societies, with properties that differ from symbolic transmission. *Bertin Martens* is Deputy Chief Economist in the directorate-General for Trade in the European Commission. He has done various assignments in the European Commission, working extensively on international economic policy issues. He also worked as a consultant for the UN and other organisations. He holds a PhD in economics from the Free University of Brussels and has been a visiting research fellow at several universities including Stanford and George Mason. His research has focused on institutions, cognition and economic development. ------------------------------ *Upcoming Seminars* *Jan 14* Chris Exton <http://www.csis.ul.ie/staff/chrisexton/> (University of Limerick) *Crowd sourcing **Jan 21* Marco Fenici <http://unisi.academia.edu/MarcoFenici> (University of Siena) *Children's Understanding of Others' Minds: Empirical Research and Challenges Ahead* * * More info about the ECCO seminar program: http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108
