Resumo
Through the lens of active inference anything that opposes a resistance to the environment can be considered an adaptive system that reaches an equilibrium state with the environment by self-evidencing. This approach entails a formal approach to mathematically model cultural changes through time, where societies and material culture are, in essence, a reflection of each other. We propose a theoretical framework that first models individuals, groups and societies as nested Markov chains that reach a dynamic equilibrium following active inference. And second, an experimental and simulated agent approach to understand what drives these changes. For this, a comparative cultural and biology approach becomes completely necessary. In short timescales, where functional brain dynamics adapt to the environment and can be measured using experimental techniques, an inter cultural approach is the way to understand the main parameters that drive changes through time. Therefore, to measure and understand physiologically what drives cultural changes, we propose the use of a combination electrophysiological measurements; EEG recordings, eye tracking and data from wearable sensor modules under subjects interacting with past and present materiality. In long timescales, in analogy with the visual nervous system, a comparative biology approach enables to detect biological constraints that clearly relate the dependency of the context and genetic background in how and what operations the cortex performs across different species, and thus enables to infer how this neuronal circuits where biologically realized through time.In conclusion, the comparison of the landscape and material culture (pottery, buildings and other materials found in archeological record) of past and modern humans, combined with our genetic background, is a perfectly valid framework to use an inter cultural and comparative biology approach to decipher what drives culture changes through time.