Cultural Explosions
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More people, more art?
Do crowds make us smarter?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Scientists have long wondered what spurred the development of human technology and cultural complexity - markers of "modern" human behavior.
Could it be mutations leading to better brains? Advances in language? Relocation to new environments? Perhaps - although none explain why similar technological leaps happened at different times in the past at different locations.
The real explanation? Geneticist Mark Thomas and his colleagues from University College London say: surges in population density.
Computer simulations revealed that people with different ability levels can coexist - and influence one another - as long as there is a significant amount of interaction.
That's why skills like abstract art and hunting technology ebb and flow in particular regions when population levels change.
Basically, cram more people into an area, and idea exchange increases. Then, new skills develop - regardless of how smart anyone is.
Instead, for our ancestors just as on Facebook, It's the number of friends! That's right.
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