Ever since the Darwin days, the concept of evolution has been primarily defined as the process which transforms species through successive generations by natural selection. However, it is used in other contexts as well, some of which may have at least partially been adopted from this biological evolution. One example of this is the concept of cultural evolution.
Cultural evolution is of course in many ways very different from biological evolution. It does not implement a fully applicable equivalent to natural selection - although due to various factors related to cultural evolution the idea of survival of the fittest no longer fully applies to natural selection in biological evolution either. Another difference that some earlier claimed to exist was that cultural evolution would always be towards increasing complexity, whereas the biological evolution would not be. Complexity is of course a very vague term, but regardless of its precise definition the truth is that neither type of evolution necessarily has a specific direction
There is one thing that in my opinion most clearly distinguishes cultural evolution from its biological sibling. Whereas biological evolution in case of humans is basically the change in what is known as a human being, cultural evolution can be interpreted in two ways. The first one is similar to the biological counterpart, namely how cultural factors like knowledge and habits change a human being compared to a theoretical human, who would have grown entirely in a culture-free environment. The second one is how culture itself evolves, which does not have a counterpart in biological evolution. As such, culture can be regarded as an entity that was born when cultural evolution began, which might have been millions of years ago, even before homo sapiens. Another view on this "entity" is to consider only the more tangible recorded history, which is less than 10 000 years old.
There is one thing that in my opinion most clearly distinguishes cultural evolution from its biological sibling. Whereas biological evolution in case of humans is basically the change in what is known as a human being, cultural evolution can be interpreted in two ways. The first one is similar to the biological counterpart, namely how cultural factors like knowledge and habits change a human being compared to a theoretical human, who would have grown entirely in a culture-free environment. The second one is how culture itself evolves, which does not have a counterpart in biological evolution. As such, culture can be regarded as an entity that was born when cultural evolution began, which might have been millions of years ago, even before homo sapiens. Another view on this "entity" is to consider only the more tangible recorded history, which is less than 10 000 years old.
The entertainment entity is not only evolving, it's growing too!
Culture evolves, and as the standard of living is constantly improving, entertainment is taking an ever-growing part in this. Entertainment, when viewed as an entity, is of course significantly younger than its holonym, the "culture entity". Entertainment in some form has probably existed for at least tens of thousands of years, whereas the recorded history of entertainment seems to have started less than 5000 years ago. And to continue with the rounded figures, if the "entertainment entity" would only include products of entertainment that still exist in their original form, the entity would perhaps be no older than 1000 years. This youngest, most concrete view on the "entity" is especially interesting in the modern world, as the mass of tangible representations of entertainment is growing very rapidly and most forms of this kind of entertainment are so easily available.
The idea of this blog is to examine entertainment in general, although the emphasis will most likely be on its most modern forms. The intention is to review and comment on some individual items of entertainment, to make notes about new entertainment-related phenomena and to also ponder where entertainment is heading as a cultural entity.
The idea of this blog is to examine entertainment in general, although the emphasis will most likely be on its most modern forms. The intention is to review and comment on some individual items of entertainment, to make notes about new entertainment-related phenomena and to also ponder where entertainment is heading as a cultural entity.
