Brain Expansion (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, April 07, 2020, 17:22 (1479 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: […] 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.(dhw: See below re the bold.)

DAVID (under “Human evolution: tool and brain advances correlated”): There is no evidence from this presentation that dhw's theory that a drive for abstract design forced brain enlargement. Lots of new sized brains but not much advancement.

As usual, they do not try to explain why brains enlarged. There is no evidence from their presentation that God did a dabble before each stage of enlargement.

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

QUOTE: ".."This unusual brain anatomy […] may explain why Einstein thought the way he did…"

Already we are confronted with the theory that the brain is responsible for thought (materialism), which I anticipated above. I’m going to have to cherrypick from all the quotes:

QUOTE: " 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." (dhw’s bold)

This is a highly significant quote: the author regards it as possible that Einstein’s brain changed AS A RESULT of thought - here the EFFORT to solve problems. That is the key to my theory.

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.

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

Still no facts to support your theory. The different brain may have been the cause of his different thoughts (materialism) or the result of his different thoughts (perfectly suited to dualism, but also fits in with materialism if the brain is a community of communities with different functions which may influence one another’s patterns).

dhw: 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.

DAVID: Entire materialistic thought….

The bold is my fault. I was supposed to be adopting the dualistic approach (as I do at the end). I'll try again: The soul which uses the small brain has the original idea, but the small brain cannot implement the idea, and therefore responds to the soul’s efforts to implement the idea. Similarly, if Einstein had a soul (dualism), or if the thinking section of his brain (materialism) came up with a problem (the initial concept), the effort to solve it may have caused the responses that made his brain different from other people’s.

DAVID: …..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. [...] you think desire makes it grow! Based on what? Not growth of tiny areas from new memory issues.

Not desire, and not wish. Please stop substituting your silly terms for the term I keep using, which is EFFORT. Meanwhile, you’ve gone back to the meaningless term “allow”. Either the brain is responsible for concepts (materialism) or the soul creates the concepts and uses the brain to gather information and to implement them (dualism). No permits necessary. Yes, new concepts demand more advanced brains – but there is no way of knowing whether the FIRST artefacts made by the new species were made AFTER brain expansion or were the cause of brain expansion. Once again you ignore this quote:”each phase (habilis, ergaster, neanderthal) started at a higher level than the previous one, but once the phase had started further development was slow”. This fits the pattern of my theory.

QUOTE " From an evolutionary perspective, the specific parts of Einstein’s prefrontal cortex that appear to be differentially expanded are of interest because recent findings indicate that these same areas increased differentially in size and became neurologically reorganized at microanatomical levels during hominin evolution in association with the emergence of higher cognitive abilities." (David’s bold)

DAVID: […] It all fits my commentary about enlarged brains and the ability for advanced concepts and designs by the brain /soul complex.

There is no mention of a soul, and the association with higher cognitive abilities fits my own theory just as well as it fits yours, since there is no way of knowing whether the reorganization of the brain preceded those cognitive abilities (i.e. caused them, which = materialism, though you don’t seem to realize that) or came about as a result of the effort to perform new tasks or solve problems (see the first Einstein quote).