Ella Al-Shamahi

you interpret that as being, okay, so they are small in number, which basically means that they are more likely to be riddled with diseases, which we do know.

For example, there are some Neanderthals from a cave called Sedron, where they had the kind of diseases you associate with very, very severe inbreeding.

But beyond that, what does a small population size lead to?

I would argue a small population size means the cumulative culture, which I'm obsessed with, is not as strong of a play.

And our cumulative culture is this idea, it's a mainstream theory, but I will say not necessarily everybody accepts it.

It's the idea that every generation builds upon the previous generation's

art, technology, science, like Miley Cyrus, like just everything.

Every generation just gets better than the previous generation in terms of the ability to accumulate knowledge.

And the thing with cumulative culture, yes, it requires a brain that likes to copy and is plastic, likes to copy each other.

But the really big thing that cumulative culture needs is numbers.

And people, I think, sometimes get lost with cumulative culture because it's just harder to visualize.

But the best way that I can explain cumulative culture to people is that if, let's say, you and I were part of a tribe that was only like, I don't know, 20 people, suddenly you and I would have to get really, really good at hunting, gathering, and just about everything in between to survive.

If our tribe consisted of 500 people, 5,000 people, we are suddenly taking a massive sigh of relief because we're like, oh, we can take a breather.

But also it means that you can go off and specialize and I can go off and specialize.

But the other side of it is that like, I don't know, for example, if one of us invents like the most basic cake in the world, like a sponge cake, right?

Sorry, I'm obsessed with sugar as you've probably guessed from a little earlier when I had a lot of sugar.

Anyway,

Yeah, something like that.

So basically, if one of us invents the Victoria, just a normal sponge cake, and our tribe is only 20 people, it's going to realistically stay as a sponge cake for generations.

But if you have hundreds of thousands of people in that group, even tens of thousands, and