Brain Expansion (Evolution)

by David Turell , Monday, April 06, 2020, 21:13 (1480 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: I asked the question because whenever I attack your theory of evolution (but I don’t attack your theory of design), you claim that “the ID folks are with me”. They are not.

They say God designs by inference, as I do.

DAVID: The enlargements are small and involve primarily memory activity, not new abstract concepts, although you have sneaked design in your list of activities, and our only known example is Einstein, with a one centimeter enlarged area, and we cannot know if he was born with it or developed the tiny area from thinking.

dhw: If Einstein was born with it, we need to discuss the materialist interpretation of thought. If he developed it, you cannot escape the conclusion that thought can expand the materials of the brain, so the theory can’t be a non-starter, as you claim below.

DAVID: Contra to your imagined giant early expansions, Einstein's area was one centimeter. His soul could use it. I do not understand how knowing some current info and realizing attack at a distance is good, but not knowing how to do it, grows a brain 200 cc.

dhw: You constantly gloss over the general principle: the modern brain does not expand (I would say cannot, for anatomical reasons), but earlier brains could and did. We know that brains change when they are made to perform new tasks. It is therefore not unreasonable to propose that they did the same in earlier times, when there was room for expansion.

Please think more completely about Einstein's brain. He was a recognized genius who was able to think differently, using known current info from others and abstractly conceptualize and entirely new theory. My original finding of a one centimeter enlargement is wrong. From Wiki current info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein%27s_brain

"..further analysis by a team at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario revealed that his parietal operculum region in the inferior frontal gyrus in the frontal lobe of the brain was vacant. Also absent was part of a bordering region called the lateral sulcus (Sylvian fissure). Researchers at McMaster University speculated that the vacancy may have enabled neurons in this part of his brain to communicate better. "This unusual brain anatomy...[missing part of the Sylvian fissure]... may explain why Einstein thought the way he did," said Professor Sandra Witelson who led the research published in The Lancet. This study was based on photographs of the whole brain made at autopsy in 1955.

***

"In the 1980s Dr. Diamond's laboratory made thin sections of Einstein's brain, each 6 micrometers thick. They then used a microscope to count the cells. Einstein's brain had more glial cells relative to neurons in all areas studied, but only in the left inferior parietal area was the difference statistically significant. This area is part of the association cortex, regions of the brain responsible for incorporating and synthesizing information from multiple other brain regions. A stimulating environment can increase the proportion of glial cells and the high ratio could possibly result from Einstein's life studying stimulating scientific problems.[15] [16] The limitation that Diamond admits in her study is that she had only one Einstein to compare with 11 brains of normal intelligence individuals."

Dhw: Now please tell us what facts you have to support the theory that your God expanded the brain before it could have an idea based on existing information?

DAVID: Simple, I believe in God, based on vast study of the science of evolution and biochemistry.

dhw: No facts yet.

I've added the new info about Einstein. Not enlarged, but very different!

DAVID: He creates the better brain to allow the soul to abstractly design the new artifact. The issue you totally ignore is the required ability to do advanced abstract thought for new designs. The previous brain cortex was not complex enough to do the job for the soul.

dhw: “Ignore”? That issue lies at the very core of my theory! In dualist terms the previous, smaller brain was not complex enough to design and make the artefact which – oops, you forgot to mention this - the soul had first conceived and which was based entirely on known information. The dualist’s soul only uses the brain to acquire information and to implement (= design and make) the artefact. The small brain which had the original idea now has to come up with advanced abstract thought for new designs and production, i.e. the brain has to perform new tasks, and so it is the EFFORT to design and make that causes the expansion. You’ve got it, except that you keep forgetting the soul’s original idea which sparks the whole process off.

Entire materialistic thought: Einstein's brain is my proof of a very different type of brain allowing new abstract concepts. Only more advanced brains/soul mechanisms can create the newer advanced concepts as the artifacts show. The bold makes no sense to me: you think desire makes it grow! Based on what? Not growth of tiny areas from new memory issues.