Tim Waring
@twaring.bsky.social
I study the evolution of human culture with a focus on environmental behaviors and institutions and an eye toward helping these become more sustainable on a single, limited planet. https://timwaring.info/
Pinned
Tim Waring
@twaring.bsky.social
· Sep 15
🚨 Excited to share a new paper 📃, years in the making, with Zach Wood.
We propose that human evolution is characterized as an Evolutionary Transition in Inheritance and Individuality (ETII).
Explainer and OA paper below:
We propose that human evolution is characterized as an Evolutionary Transition in Inheritance and Individuality (ETII).
Explainer and OA paper below:
Reposted by Tim Waring
Just in case you need a visual: xkcd.com/1379/
4.5 Degrees
xkcd.com
January 3, 2026 at 3:40 AM
Just in case you need a visual: xkcd.com/1379/
Reposted by Tim Waring
Wikipedia is truly one of the greatest things on the Internet. It is absolutely incredible, and must be preserved at all costs.
January 1, 2026 at 10:19 PM
Wikipedia is truly one of the greatest things on the Internet. It is absolutely incredible, and must be preserved at all costs.
Reposted by Tim Waring
Reposted by Tim Waring
Remember the 1920s when nobody was left-handed
December 24, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Remember the 1920s when nobody was left-handed
Reposted by Tim Waring
I am ecstatic about the implications that large models have on the viability of generative grammar and the linguistic turn, and yet I am able to maintain a critical perspective on the tech industry. It's not that hard.
December 22, 2025 at 6:23 AM
I am ecstatic about the implications that large models have on the viability of generative grammar and the linguistic turn, and yet I am able to maintain a critical perspective on the tech industry. It's not that hard.
Reposted by Tim Waring
Cultural Evolution (Methods) paper alert 🚨
🎉🍾 very excited to see this out before 2025 ends doi.org/10.1111/2041... with Will Hoppitt in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social. This paper is an overview of our new R package STbayes, a user-friendly toolkit for performing Bayesian NBDA analyses. @cbehav.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social
STbayes: An R package for creating, fitting and understanding Bayesian models of social transmission
A critical consequence of joining social groups is the possibility of social transmission of information related to novel behaviours or resources. Network-based diffusion analysis (NBDA) has emerg...
doi.org
December 21, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Cultural Evolution (Methods) paper alert 🚨
Reposted by Tim Waring
Thanks, @nautil.us for including my book Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer in your top 10 must reads to ring in the new year!
nautil.us/the-nautilus...
nautil.us/the-nautilus...
The Nautilus Winter Reading List 2025
The Nautilus Winter Reading List 2025: Ten books we loved to start your new year off right.
nautil.us
December 20, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Thanks, @nautil.us for including my book Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer in your top 10 must reads to ring in the new year!
nautil.us/the-nautilus...
nautil.us/the-nautilus...
Reposted by Tim Waring
🎉🍾 very excited to see this out before 2025 ends doi.org/10.1111/2041... with Will Hoppitt in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social. This paper is an overview of our new R package STbayes, a user-friendly toolkit for performing Bayesian NBDA analyses. @cbehav.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social
STbayes: An R package for creating, fitting and understanding Bayesian models of social transmission
A critical consequence of joining social groups is the possibility of social transmission of information related to novel behaviours or resources. Network-based diffusion analysis (NBDA) has emerg...
doi.org
December 20, 2025 at 8:55 AM
🎉🍾 very excited to see this out before 2025 ends doi.org/10.1111/2041... with Will Hoppitt in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social. This paper is an overview of our new R package STbayes, a user-friendly toolkit for performing Bayesian NBDA analyses. @cbehav.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social
Reposted by Tim Waring
Happy 100th birthday to Dick Van Dyke!
December 13, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Happy 100th birthday to Dick Van Dyke!
Reposted by Tim Waring
And in the meantime, check out my last Q&A with @twaring.bsky.social on the tensions between genes and culture and individuals and groups in human evolution — and why he thinks we might be headed in the direction of more collective, cultural evolution.
The individual isn't what it used to be
Tim Waring thinks human evolution is shifting from genetic and individual to cultural and collective
www.reviewertoo.com
December 10, 2025 at 9:24 PM
And in the meantime, check out my last Q&A with @twaring.bsky.social on the tensions between genes and culture and individuals and groups in human evolution — and why he thinks we might be headed in the direction of more collective, cultural evolution.
Reposted by Tim Waring
NSF
- Forced reorg
- POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements)
- Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …)
I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing.
“Details matter” 🙃
- Forced reorg
- POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements)
- Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …)
I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing.
“Details matter” 🙃
December 11, 2025 at 11:16 AM
NSF
- Forced reorg
- POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements)
- Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …)
I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing.
“Details matter” 🙃
- Forced reorg
- POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements)
- Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …)
I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing.
“Details matter” 🙃
Reposted by Tim Waring
#SomeGoodNews A former Dyson engineer is rolling out a revolution for household chores in deprived communities after inventing an off-grid, flat-packable washing machine.
The Divya washing machine operates a 30-min wash cycle where it completes a 5kg load needing only a few minutes of manual turning
The Divya washing machine operates a 30-min wash cycle where it completes a 5kg load needing only a few minutes of manual turning
Flat-pack washing machine spins a fairer future
A former Dyson engineer is rolling out a revolution for household chores in deprived communities after inventing an off-grid washing machine
www.positive.news
December 10, 2025 at 10:30 AM
#SomeGoodNews A former Dyson engineer is rolling out a revolution for household chores in deprived communities after inventing an off-grid, flat-packable washing machine.
The Divya washing machine operates a 30-min wash cycle where it completes a 5kg load needing only a few minutes of manual turning
The Divya washing machine operates a 30-min wash cycle where it completes a 5kg load needing only a few minutes of manual turning
Reposted by Tim Waring
How likely are you to invest in a new business? Ask your partner to marry you? Move to a new country?
A new model by SFI External Professor Paul Smaldino and colleagues explains how wealth, experience, and environment shape our risk tolerance — and how those effects persist across generations.
A new model by SFI External Professor Paul Smaldino and colleagues explains how wealth, experience, and environment shape our risk tolerance — and how those effects persist across generations.
Personal risk tolerance has sweeping implications for how societies evolve
How much risk is any individual willing to take on? That depends, in part, on their individual resources and environment, which shape the learning strategies that influence their personal proclivity t...
www.santafe.edu
December 9, 2025 at 9:38 PM
How likely are you to invest in a new business? Ask your partner to marry you? Move to a new country?
A new model by SFI External Professor Paul Smaldino and colleagues explains how wealth, experience, and environment shape our risk tolerance — and how those effects persist across generations.
A new model by SFI External Professor Paul Smaldino and colleagues explains how wealth, experience, and environment shape our risk tolerance — and how those effects persist across generations.
Reposted by Tim Waring
For the record, I will be swearing in on Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower after I’m elected.
Swear your oath ON the dome.
December 9, 2025 at 4:41 PM
For the record, I will be swearing in on Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower after I’m elected.
Reposted by Tim Waring
Reposted by Tim Waring
2018, Russia: "Fuck this, I'm not watching a World Cup in a fascist country. I'll just wait four years."
2022, Qatar: "Fuck this, I'm not watching a World Cup in a fascist country. I guess I'll wait another four years..."
2026: So I guess the joke is on me.
2022, Qatar: "Fuck this, I'm not watching a World Cup in a fascist country. I guess I'll wait another four years..."
2026: So I guess the joke is on me.
December 5, 2025 at 6:39 PM
2018, Russia: "Fuck this, I'm not watching a World Cup in a fascist country. I'll just wait four years."
2022, Qatar: "Fuck this, I'm not watching a World Cup in a fascist country. I guess I'll wait another four years..."
2026: So I guess the joke is on me.
2022, Qatar: "Fuck this, I'm not watching a World Cup in a fascist country. I guess I'll wait another four years..."
2026: So I guess the joke is on me.
Reposted by Tim Waring
I have decided that I can't pretend to be an ethnomathematics researcher and self-ascribed "string theorist" (anthropologist of string and knots?) without being able to tie a khipu.
So here goes. A project for the holidays. Will update my progress later.
So here goes. A project for the holidays. Will update my progress later.
December 5, 2025 at 9:51 AM
I have decided that I can't pretend to be an ethnomathematics researcher and self-ascribed "string theorist" (anthropologist of string and knots?) without being able to tie a khipu.
So here goes. A project for the holidays. Will update my progress later.
So here goes. A project for the holidays. Will update my progress later.
Reposted by Tim Waring
There is some low-ranked devil in Hell who needs a promotion for quietly installing screens to display video ads on every square inch of every American airport
December 4, 2025 at 4:20 PM
There is some low-ranked devil in Hell who needs a promotion for quietly installing screens to display video ads on every square inch of every American airport
Reposted by Tim Waring
Yessssssssss. Happy promotion to full professor to meeeeeee
December 4, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Yessssssssss. Happy promotion to full professor to meeeeeee
Reposted by Tim Waring
The real question is not "Why is Bluesky so left-coded," the real question is "Why can't the right exist in a social media environment without algorithmic assistance, where people can ignore them"
December 2, 2025 at 3:08 PM
The real question is not "Why is Bluesky so left-coded," the real question is "Why can't the right exist in a social media environment without algorithmic assistance, where people can ignore them"
Reposted by Tim Waring
Reposted by Tim Waring
Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread
November 29, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread
Reposted by Tim Waring
The Europe based volunteer built database links raids, agents, vehicles & legal structures, aiming to break the cycle of official secrecy.
NEWS: ICE List Launches Wiki to Expose Enforcement Network
The Europe-based volunteer-built database links raids, agents, vehicles, and legal structures, aiming to break the cycle of official secrecy.
migrantinsider.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:59 PM
The Europe based volunteer built database links raids, agents, vehicles & legal structures, aiming to break the cycle of official secrecy.
Reposted by Tim Waring
I taught (and co-taught) a course on human population genetics from 2000-2024. Having retired, I'm now making all the course materials public: github.com/alanrogers/p... #popgen #evbio
GitHub - alanrogers/popgen: A course on population genetics
A course on population genetics. Contribute to alanrogers/popgen development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
November 27, 2025 at 7:10 PM
I taught (and co-taught) a course on human population genetics from 2000-2024. Having retired, I'm now making all the course materials public: github.com/alanrogers/p... #popgen #evbio