Tootfinder

Scaling the human niche
Marcus J. Hamilton
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.20902 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.20902

Scaling the human niche
The human niche represents the intersection of biological, ecological, cultural, and technological processes that have co-evolved to shape human adaptation and societal complexity. This paper explores the human niche through the lens of macroecological scaling theory, seeking to define and quantify the dimensions along which human ecological strategies have diversified. By leveraging concepts from classic niche theory, niche construction, and complex adaptive systems, I develop a framework for …

Causality in the human niche: lessons for machine learning
Richard D. Lange, Konrad P. Kording
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.13803 https://

Causality in the human niche: lessons for machine learning
Humans interpret the world around them in terms of cause and effect and communicate their understanding of the world to each other in causal terms. These causal aspects of human cognition are thought to underlie humans' ability to generalize and learn efficiently in new domains, an area where current machine learning systems are weak. Building human-like causal competency into machine learning systems may facilitate the construction of effective and interpretable AI. Indeed, the machine learnin…