As someone who has been working with Olivier for quite a few years now, this is a really awesome opportunity for someone interested in the evolution of graphic codes. And you get to do great science in Paris!
CALL: a PhD grant (3 years) to do a PhD with me at @cognitionens.bsky.social on the evolution of graphic codes. euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/410213
Putting together this whole special issue has been an adventure, but one of the most rewarding parts has been the opportunity to write with one of my very favorite cognitive anthropologists - I'll let @schrisomalis.bsky.social sell it for us below!
I wish I could have joined you! Feeling the FOMO from California pretty hard...
🚨 New paper alert! (slightly belated)
We (with @joshcjackson.bsky.social) suggest that complex technologies, as they need several (often many) people to use them, require innovations that distribute cognition to help regulate cognitive load and coordinate.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@helenamiton.bsky.social and I have a new paper out:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Past theories focus on how we evolve complex technologies (jet engines), but neglect cultural innovations that help us operate these technologies (pilot checklist)
Paper has tons of examples and new theory!
Check out this excellent new article by Ekstrom et al., "The Phoneme as a Cognitive Tool", in the special issue of Topics in Cognitive Science, "Cognitive Technologies and their Histories", which I'm co-editing with @helenamiton.bsky.social.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Check out Penelope Scott's great new article, "Medical Recipes in Early Medieval English" part of the special issue I'm co-editing with @helenamiton.bsky.social in Topics in Cognitive Science, "Cognitive Technologies and their Histories".
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
In 'Cosmovision as cognitive technology', @helendecruz.net and Johan de Smedt analyze the Cruz-Badianus (Nahua / Aztec) herbarium as a tool to scaffold knowledge of a distinctive cosmology of the body. 3/3
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
In 'Time Tools', @kensycoop.bsky.social investigates the concepts, practices, and artifacts we use to concretize, coordinate, and measure time. 2/3
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Two new articles came out this week in the special issue of Topics in Cognitive Science "Cognitive Technologies and their Histories", edited by @helenamiton.bsky.social and me: 1/3
Rep2SI: Reputation & the Reproduction of Social Inequality. A Leverhulme-funded project based at the LSE, combining ethnography, economic games, and modelling. We're looking for a modeller to join our core team as a two-year postdoctoral research officer.
🚨Job alert! Two-year postdoc to join the Rep2SI project at @lsemethodology.bsky.social! We're looking for a modeller to join our team of ethnographers & experimentalists studying the role of reputation and reputational concern in perpetuating social inequality.
Apply by 4 May: tinyurl.com/yjccd3vv
The CultureLab at PSL, Paris, is recruiting a research engineer in #dh, computational social sciences and cultural evolution.
We're looking for skills in data science, machine learning and programming.
4 years position.
euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/323661
I'm hiring a new lab manager!
Deadline to apply is April 1st. More details here: www.chicagobooth.edu/-/media/facu...
I formed some of my deepest and most impactful partnerships as a lab manager, and it's a position that I highly value.
If you are a PI, please circulate to possible applicants!
Information Architectures: A Framework for Understanding Socio-Technical Systems
A sequence of technological inventions over several centuries has dramatically lowered the cost of producing and distributing information. Because societies ride on a substrate of information, these changes have profoundly impacted how we live, work, and interact. This paper explores the nature of information architectures (IAs)—the features that govern how information flows within human populations. IAs include physical and digital infrastructures, norms and institutions, and algorithmic technologies for filtering, producing, and disseminating information. IAs can reinforce societal biases and lead to prosocial outcomes as well as social ills. IAs have culturally evolved rapidly with human usage, creating new affordances and new problems for the dynamics of social interaction. We explore societal outcomes instigated by shifts in IAs and call for an enhanced understanding of the social implications of increasing IA complexity, the nature of competition among IAs, and the creation of mechanisms for the beneficial use of IAs.
"Information Architectures: A Framework for Understanding Socio-Technical Systems" is in press at npj Complexity. Normally I might wait until publication to share, but given the relevance to our rapidly-changing world, it seemed worth sharing now. osf.io/preprints/so...
We might not have kept in touch as much as we should have since our last model, Alberto! You might like the papers we published (with @dansperber.bsky.social) on cognitive (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....) & environmental (royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....) constraints
🚨 New paper alert! 🚨 If you use a writing system and/or a language with sounds (which, come on, if you're reading this, you do!), and are curious to learn more about how these systems encode information (you should be), please enjoy our latest paper - fresh off the press!
Alberto said it all - it's a pretty fantastic opportunity for a Junior researcher in Computational Social Sciences, go apply! Deadline is March 20th, 2025.
💥Postdoc Opening! 💥We (@lucasmolleman.bsky.social & Piet van den Berg) seek a postdoc to study social learning and cultural evolution. We are looking for someone with math/computational modeling skills & interest in human behavior. Get in touch if you have any questions! shorturl.at/W6Qsb
For our junior colleagues in the US looking for opportunities, Europe is a great place to do science 🧪 We have a #postdoc call open right now! #complexity
csh.ac.at/education/po...
🏰 PhD position on computational modelling | collective dynamics | cultural evolution 🏰
Get in touch with any questions you might have and join me in beautiful Marburg!
stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/c... (Deutsch)
stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/3... (English)
It was a lot of fun! It also gives me the -priceless- possibility to quote "bloodletting was quite refreshing" (Mercier, 2025) ;)
Oh, did you visit after the move?
Now, a few years later, I really appreciate how much the department where I got my PhD and the years in Budapest have influenced my thinking (and still do).
I've thought about babbling on about a few things I've learned in the process to celebrate, but I'm not sure I have that much wisdom to share. I'm happy to answer any questions, though!
I've since completed a PhD (cognitive science at the CEU, Budapest), a postdoc fellowship (complexity science, Santa Fe Institute), and I'm 18 months into my tenure-track position (Org Behavior, Stanford GSB), and worked with so many amazing folks along the way.
So it's hard to believe, but it has been 10 years (!) since my first scientific publication - on the cultural success of bloodletting with @hugoreasoning.bsky.social and Nicolas Claidière. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
We're hiring! Are you a cultural evolutionary modeller who wants to understand how and why children's peer cultures evolve? Here's a postdoc position for you! @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social @durhampsych.bsky.social @ehbea.bsky.social @eslr.bsky.social
Apply here: durham.taleo.net/careersectio...
Major JOB ALERT! I and close colleagues have 4 (!) positions open. So if you're looking for a postdoc or PhD, do read on:
New article in our special issue 'Cognitive Technologies and their Histories': Ottaviano et al., "Metaphors and the invention of writing"
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Glad to have you here!
