Brain expansion (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, June 03, 2020, 19:41 (1416 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: I've never thought a complexification process was autonomous in your sense. It follows established instructions in brain genome.

dhw: So it’s not autonomous, and you obviously have no idea what “instructions” you are talking about.

Very obvious to me. The neurons have onboard instructions as to how to run a complexification process during deep thought. The soul uses the instrument of the brain's many extra neurons to observe and learn, creates memories of facts and conceptualizes new theories. And the brain is able to shuck cells.

dhw: […] So instead of repeating that he could only have designed such an “autonomous” mechanism if it had NOT been autonomous (but each change had been preprogrammed or dabbled), please explain why he could NOT have designed an autonomous mechanism. If your answer is that he wanted to control every response to every requirement, please acknowledge that such an answer is pure guesswork and has no more validity than a guess that he wanted to allow for a variety of responses – which is precisely what the mechanism achieved (varieties of hominins and homos).

DAVID: Home sapiens as the most different species with the largest cortex in the frontal and prefrontal areas had the largest complexification process which contained all the instructions it needed to competently do its shrinkage/reorganization of neurons. I believe we were given a very thoroughly instructed brain from its beginning. Much improved over earlier forms.

dhw: I’m sure we all agree that we have a special, much improved brain. You agreed that complexification must also have taken place in pre-sapiens brains. So we’re talking about larger size and increased complexification. I suggest that – theistic version – this development would have taken place as a result of an autonomous mechanism (cellular intelligence) which enabled the cellular communities of the brain to restructure themselves (enlarging or complexifying) in order to meet new requirements. Now please tell us once and for all what sort of “instructions” you think your God had to provide, if they were not in the form of a mechanism enabling the brain to restructure itself in order to meet new requirements.

Correct. Our brain obviously contains a mechanism to reorganize existing neurons into more complex circuits to handle more advanced thought, with so many extra neurons that could be deleted and result in a shrinkage of 150 cc.

DAVID: As for how God did it, my guesses are the same. As for the many hominin/homo varieties in different climates, as I stated before, as they interbred, they provided/ developed naturally different beneficial attributes to the final sapiens species.

dhw: How God did it, if I remember rightly, was by personally twiddling the genomes of all the hominins and homos. “Developed naturally”? Are you then saying that your God provided them with an autonomous mechanism that enabled them to develop different attributes? Or are you going to tell us that he twiddled every genome with “instructions” to develop the attributes which presumably he would then transfer to H. sapiens when he eventually got round to directly designing/twiddling the only species of homo he wanted to design/twiddle?

Fully explained before. I'll give an example from the Denisovans who gave us the ability to live at high altitude, as they had the ability to adapt to it. Neanderthals gave us improved immunity from the abilities they had. In my view God gave all earlier branches adaptation abilities which all proceeded to supply humans benefits as they interbred with earlier forms..