Prakhar Jaiswal

456: Kaleda Denton | Following the Majority - How Conformity Shapes Culture and AI In this episode of the Armen Show, Armen Shirvanian interviews Dr. Kaleda Denton, a post-doctoral fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. They discuss the interdisciplinary nature of the Institute, the concept of niche construction in biology, and the dynamics of decision-making, particularly the differences between following the mean versus the majority. The conversation also explores the limitations of game theory, the role of cultural evolution in cooperation, and the impact of AI on accessibility and learning. They delve into the importance of reducing polarization while maintaining diversity in viewpoints, emphasizing the need for mixing and collaboration across different fields and perspectives. In this engaging conversation, Dr. Kaleda Denton and Armen Shirvanian explore a variety of topics including the distinction between majority and mean opinions, the challenges of reading in the digital age, and the implications of large language models (LLMs) on culture. They discuss the importance of communication in society, the influence of close circles versus wider communities in learning, and the role of influential figures in personal development. The conversation also delves into the concept of memes and cultural transmission, the impact of role models on cumulative culture, and the question of human uniqueness in the context of cultural evolution. Check out Kaleda's website at https://www.kaledadenton.com/ 00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Guest 03:01 The Santa Fe Institute: A Unique Interdisciplinary Environment 05:56 Niche Construction and Extended Evolutionary Synthesis 08:56 Mean vs. Majority: Insights from Research 12:08 Game Theory and Its Limitations 15:03 Cultural Evolution and Cooperation 17:59 The Role of AI in Learning and Accessibility 20:54 Conformity Across Species and LLMs 23:59 The Importance of Current Information 27:03 Final Thoughts on AI and Human Interaction 36:57 The Quirks of AI Hallucinations 38:53 The Evolution of Language Models 39:35 Agency and Individuality in AI Interactions 41:41 The Flattening of Ideas and Language 43:42 Cognitive Offloading and Its Consequences 45:04 Reducing Polarization Through Interaction 48:39 The Importance of Mixing Perspectives 50:02 The Dangers of Majority Influence 53:51 Understanding Mean vs. Majority Opinions 01:04:32 Risks and Opportunities in Cultural Evolution 01:10:02 The Impact of Headlines on News Consumption 01:11:46 The Need for Positive News 01:15:04 Learning from Close Circles vs. Wider Communities 01:17:23 Influential Figures in Personal Development 01:18:44 The Evolution of Human Uniqueness 01:22:38 Understanding Memes and Cultural Transmission 01:23:10 The Multiplicative Costs of Altruism 01:36:09 The Role of Role Models in Cumulative Culture

Honoured to have done my first ever podcast on The Armen Show! Besides science, math, & academia, we talked about:

-LLMs hyping up bad ideas
-My 5 foster cats, but whether I'm secretly a dog person
-How it would be nice to "skip" & "mute" people in real life 😛

Check it out! 😄

tinyurl.com/yc4hjz2x

23.10.2025 20:58 — 👍 5    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0

Thrilled to begin my graduate studies in Mathematics at @ubcmath.bsky.social with @chadisaadroy.bsky.social

02.09.2025 16:09 — 👍 6    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Just finished reading an insightful book by @joshuasweitz.bsky.social, which explores the role of asymptomatic cases, the importance of large-scale testing, and vaccine development. Beyond COVID-19, it provides broader insights into how we can approach and prepare for future health challenges.

30.08.2025 04:11 — 👍 9    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Figure 5 from the linked paper. It has four panels, and kind of looks nice, and is best described by the paper text and figure caption.

Modeling effects of population heterogeneity on disease spread. #OpenAccess in JTB, with Jeremy Harris , Esther Gallmeier, @beckettstephen.bsky.social and
@joshuasweitz.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1016/j.jt...

01.08.2025 14:12 — 👍 7    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

Feature-based reward learning shapes human social learning strategies - Nature Human Behaviour This research advances a mechanistic reward learning account of social learning strategies. Through experiments and simulations, it shows how individuals learn to learn from others, dynamically shapin...

Through experiments and simulations, this study shows how individuals learn to learn from others, dynamically shaping the processes involved in cultural evolution. @davidschultner.bsky.social @bjornlindstrom.bsky.social
@lucasmolleman.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

23.07.2025 11:29 — 👍 23    🔁 9    💬 0    📌 1

Evolving general cooperation with a Bayesian theory of mind | PNAS Theories of the evolution of cooperation through reciprocity explain how unrelated self-interested individuals can accomplish more together than th...

Our new paper is out in PNAS: "Evolving general cooperation with a Bayesian theory of mind"!

Humans are the ultimate cooperators. We coordinate on a scale and scope no other species (nor AI) can match. What makes this possible? 🧵

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

22.07.2025 06:03 — 👍 92    🔁 36    💬 2    📌 2

Since December 2020, I’ve been building visualize-it.github.io as part of my science communication and outreach efforts. It features 45 interactive visualizations from math, physics, computer science, and complex systems.

If you find it interesting, please repost it!
#science #scicomm #education

19.07.2025 11:09 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0

Steady-State and Dynamical Behavior of a PDE Model of Multilevel Selection with Pairwise Group-Level Competition - Bulletin of Mathematical Biology Evolutionary competition often occurs simultaneously at multiple levels of organization, in which traits or behaviors that are costly for an individual can provide collective benefits to groups to whi...

I am really happy to share this new paper with Konstantinos Alexiou on Steady-State and Dynamical Behavior of a PDE Model of Multilevel Selection with Pairwise Group-Level Competition, which is now published in #BulletinMathBio.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
🧪

07.07.2025 23:48 — 👍 21    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0

Stabilizing unconditional cooperation | Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences The ultimate goal of research on the evolution of cooperation could be conceived as finding a method for stabilizing strategies that always cooperate, that never deviate from cooperation, that never e...

A different view of direct reciprocity in the evolution of cooperation. The enduring strategy in an evolving population need not be discriminators if unconditional cooperators can occasionally mutate to a conditional strategy in presence of defectors.

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

01.07.2025 23:36 — 👍 12    🔁 8    💬 2    📌 0

For “Reflections on the history of modeling and theory”, @sarperotto.bsky.social and I met with Joel Cohen. We learn how he navigated math and biology, the value of embracing ignorance, and what is a population. Or really, what _isn't_ a population: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCt9...
@smtpb.bsky.social

26.06.2025 15:31 — 👍 33    🔁 12    💬 1    📌 1

Maybe we're all modellers, carrying a model of the world around in our heads. Our models don't usually matter. But mathematicians' models can matter a lot. What do they really contain?

Watch Erica Thompson's full lecture on responsible modelling: youtu.be/OpYUxZry4vo

26.06.2025 14:24 — 👍 9    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 1

Poster for event titled "How to Give an Engaging and Technical Research Talk" on June 6, 2025 at 1pm EDT. The speaker is Dr. Ana Bento from Cornell University and the slide contains a QR code and link to register.

Want to make your research presentations more compelling and accessible? Join @midas-network.bsky.social trainees for a workshop on how to give an effective research talk!

We'll hear from @anaisabelbento.bsky.social on how to tailor talks for different audiences & then apply what we've learned.

27.05.2025 14:19 — 👍 2    🔁 4    💬 2    📌 1

From humans to swarm intelligence, what is the impact of uninformed individuals on collective decisions? Check this comment in @science.org by @kenjennings.bsky.social and @carlbergstrom.com on @icouzin.bsky.social et al's paper cdanfort.w3.uvm.edu/csc-reading-...

25.05.2025 12:03 — 👍 32    🔁 7    💬 1    📌 1