Natural Selection and the Nature of Communication

• Published in: The Handbook of Communication Science and Biology pp. 21 - 49
• Main Authors: Tooby, John, Cosmides, Leda
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2020
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Kuiper Belt Objects; Incest Avoidance; Shannon's Theory; Predator Evasion; Interpretive System; Replicative Work; Blank Slate View; Costly Signaling Theory; Replicative Order; Welfare Tradeoffs; Fire Control Systems; Epistemic Vigilance; AET; Informational Substrate; Warning Coloration; Adaptive Problem; Functional Order; Affection Exchange Theory; MIDUS Study; Task Positive Network; Sexual Concordance; Cognitive Niche; Bilateral Temporoparietal Junction
• ISBN: 0815376731; 9780815376736; 9780815376712; 0815376715
• DOI: 10.4324/9781351235587-5

The theoretical foundations of communication are derived from physical first principles and the theory of natural selection, to provide explanations for the origins and nature of communication. Natural selection, acting on replicating organisms, produces a new kind of objective physical order, replicative order, which anchors an objective definition of function. Communication evolves both internally, as part of a cybernetic or organism control system, and externally among organisms, exclusively to serve replicative functions. Selection creates causal systems with respect to which Shannon's theory of communication and definition of information become meaningful. Coordination on a shared represented world is necessary for human communication to occur, and our evolved neural programs provide shared interpretive frameworks that motivate us to act and contend in.