I suspect that people want more complex popular culture because they've gotten smarter at least as much as the more complex culture making them smarter by accident.
Anyone have any actual knowledge of why tv shows started doing longer, more complex story arcs?
I have no such knowledge, but allow me to add "better recording and rewatching options" to the list of candidates. Ready access to the backlog is certainly a factor in the success of serials in webcomics over newspaper comics, for example. (Yes, there are serials in both, but they are the norm in webcomics and the exception in print.)
Edit: Q&A is now closed. Thanks to everyone for participating, and thanks very much to Harpending and Cochran for their responses.
In response to Kaj's review, Henry Harpending and Gregory Cochran, the authors of the The 10,000 Year Explosion, have agreed to a Q&A session with the Less Wrong community.
If you have any questions for either Harpending or Cochran, please reply to this post with a question addressed to one or both of them. Material for questions might be derived from their blog for the book which includes stories about hunting animals in Africa with an eye towards evolutionary implications (which rose to Jennifer's attention based on Steve Sailer's prior attention).
Please do not kibitz in this Q&A... instead go to the kibitzing area to talk about the Q&A session itself. Eventually, this post will be edited to note that the process has been closed, at which time there should be no new questions.