A THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE Part Two (Identity)

by dhw, Saturday, June 30, 2018, 10:54 (2127 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: You say yourself that it is the soul and not the brain that does the initiating and refining of the thoughts. So you don’t need a bigger brain to initiate thoughts!

DAVID: In my view the larger complex networks in each stage of larger brain allows the soul to develop more complex thought. That is our difference in the theory.

Our argument over dualism revolves round the initiation of thought. Of course once the new thought has become old, and the brain has already expanded in order to implement/express that thought, the soul will initiate more new thoughts building on the old thoughts (that’s progress for you!) and in due course they too may require more enlargement. To continue yesterday’s example: pre-sapiens no need bigger brain to know he hungry and want kill living meat. Soul initiate idea: “spear”. Brain no grow bigger BEFORE he initiate “spear” thought. Soul instruct brain and body to make spear. Spear made, an’ NOW brain be bigger through need for new cells implementing new concept. Next: bigger-brained pre-sapiens hungry and want kill living meat. Spear OK but same soul initiate better idea: bow ‘n’ arrow. New idea require more changes to brain – maybe expansion.

New thought results in brain change, as proven by modern science. (See “pitch control”). But you keep claiming that the dualist’s brain has to be changed/enlarged each time BEFORE new thoughts can be initiated. If the dualist’s soul is the only initiator of the thought, the initiation of the thought does not depend on the size of the brain! If it does, you have materialism, which may well be true. Hence my reconciliation theory.

dhw: How does the passive brain receive the soul’s output (or its instructions) if the soul doesn’t dictate to it?

DAVID: When I type on my computer I initiate all thoughts, and the computer is passive. Same with soul and brain, but the more complex the computer the more complex operations I can perform on it. Same with soul and brain.

Precisely. Your dualist’s soul initiates your thoughts and dictates them to your computer/brain, which expresses them materially. If your computer/brain is already equipped to express your thoughts, it doesn’t need to change. If your soul has new thoughts which are beyond the capacity of your existing computer/brain to express, you need a more complex or, in the good old days, a larger computer/brain. The initiation of your thoughts does not depend on the complexity/capacity of your computer/brain. The computer/brain has to increase its complexity/capacity in order to accommodate the thoughts initiated by your soul. Thank you for this clear example.

dhw: ...at various times you have agreed that the “two different mechanisms” refer to the means of observation and communication, not to the “separate consciousness mechanism”. In life the soul and brain are interlocked, but in your own words the soul is a “SEPARATE consciousness mechanism” which resides in and works with the material brain. I keep reproducing your own words which present precisely the same concept of dualism as my own, so why do you keep disagreeing with yourself?

DAVID: You keep missing the points I've made above about the soul brain relationship. My thoughts are unchanged. Since no brain is present in death, the soul uses telepathy by being joined to the universal consciousness of God.

That is what I keep telling you! Your “separate consciousness mechanism” remains unchanged, but without a brain the soul has to use psychic powers (e.g. telepathy) in order to observe and communicate. According to you, the soul is already a piece of your God’s consciousness when it’s inside the brain, and that is the unchanging mechanism for thought. I don’t understand why you keep agreeing and making it sound as if you disagree.