Brain expansion (Evolution)

by David Turell , Sunday, June 28, 2020, 20:54 (1389 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: The full implication of your theory is that the old brain has a new idea but a newly enlarged brain must appear to implement it. Why a delay of stasis? I am not misquoting or misunderstanding. From Thursday :
dhw: "In my theory, the original thought appears in the old smaller brain using existing information, and implementation as defined above forces enlargement. The new artefact and the expanded brain naturally “appear” at the same time."

dhw: The only delay is the period of time it takes for implementation! That is not "stasis"! Implementing the new concept is the process which expands the brain, and at the end of that process of expansion, the new concept has taken on its material form – the artefact. Stasis is the period of time (thousands of years) that follows this act of expansion, because either there are no new big ideas, or whatever ideas there are can be implemented by the existing brain.

We have no idea when the idea appears or the manufacture of the new implement is performed. In archaeological dig both are found together. So all that can be said is the artifact is related to and the result of the newly-size brain. Any presumption after that is all invention. The only brain we know shrinks with heavy use.

dhw: […] the dualist’s soul uses the information provided by the existing brain in order to do its thinking. But the existing brain does not have a capacity FOR THOUGHT – its functions, as we have agreed over and over again, are to provide information and to implement (defined earlier) the soul’s thoughts.

DAVID: Again totally twisting my thoughts. To repeat: in life the soul must use the brain's neuronal circuits to think and create original thought. Only in death can the soul do it separately.

dhw: There is no twisting. We agree (though I’ll stay neutral on the question of an afterlife.) But I specify HOW the soul uses the brain, whereas you come up with confusing expressions, as quoted here:
dhw: Your addition to this implies that the brain thinks (the brain’s “capacity for complex thought" and earlier "the thought quality of brain"). If you believe that the brain thinks, you are a materialist, and you may well be right. So tell us outright: do you believe the soul does the thinking? Or do you believe that the brain also thinks?

DAVID: Why repeat distortions I have denied over and over? I am a dualist, not a materialist, and I do not accept your style of dualist theory. See above statement.

dhw: You have already accepted it, but insisted on an addition to which I have objected. Here is the exchange:
dhw: In dualism the soul does the thinking. Yes or no? It uses the brain for information and for implementation as defined above. Yes or no?

DAVID: Yes and no. Please add, in life, the soul must use its companion brain to create thought, the complexity dependent upon presently existing brain capacity for complex thought.[/b]

dhw: I do not accept that dualism endows the brain with a capacity for thought. Otherwise you have repeatedly accepted my own “style of dualist theory”.

I didn't say or believe what is in the bold. What I state is the soul must use the brain's neuronal networks in order to have/create thoughts while in life and attached to/part of the living person. My position is quite clear. Again, it is only in death or NDE that the soul thinks on its own. Same repeat after repeat. What isn't clear?