Brain expansion (Evolution)

by dhw, Sunday, July 19, 2020, 13:15 (1370 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: You have again avoided my theory that the soul must use the degree of complexity offered by the neuronal networks in the brain it is using in life to reach the limit of complexity of thought that network allows.

dhw: You have again fudged the argument. Yes, the dualist’s soul uses the existing networks' complexities for the information they provide, and for implementation of its thoughts. And yes, these two functions are limited. But the dualist can have new thoughts using the existing information (the spear example, extending right through to – and including – sapiens), and the implementation of these new thoughts will require further complexities. However, if the existing networks are not sufficient to implement the new thoughts, the brain will require additional networks – hence pre-sapiens expansion.

DAVID: I've fudged nothing. In my view each earlier form of hominin/homo brain allowed the soul to invent new thoughts/concepts only to the level the complexity of the brain allows to develop. Steady advance of artifacts with the fossils prove the point.

You are fudging the distinction between thoughts/concepts and their implementation! The dualist’s brain, as you have agreed, has two functions: 1) provide information; 2) implement the concept. The dualist’s soul can think of a new concept using existing information. But what you call the “development” of the new concept depends on the brain’s level of complexity. (Spear example: old brain thinks of weapon to kill from a distance; process of development from this idea to the finished article – the artefact – requires addition to existing capacity for complexification, as brain responds to new requirements. Development or implementation leads to expansion.) Steady advance of artefacts accompanying brain expansion “proves the point”. But a) new artefacts are only one possible cause, and b) the new brain could go on to produce further advances without requiring further expansion.

DAVID: I'll stick with God running evolution and enlarging brains and skulls and changing pelvic measurements as necessary and all at once. The necessary enlargements that advanced us to our current stage were a total of 800 cc., about 26 ounces.

dhw: Thank you for the information. How does that explain why the sapiens brain stopped expanding?

DAVID: The brain we got was so adequate it shrunk 150 cc when active use appeared.

When you say the brain we “got”, you mean the brain God “all at once” gave to a particular group of homos at the same time as he expanded their skulls and pelvises. But for some reason, he made the brains bigger than necessary.

DAVID: 'Anything is possible' is a nebulous argument. Our brain dos not expand presently!!! Some neurons( microscopic size) can be produced, nothing of size.

dhw: The argument itself is not nebulous but absolutely concrete. If there are vestiges of an autonomous expansion process, the same process may have played a major role in former times. The fact that it is an unproven theory does not make it any more nebulous than the theory that there is a God, or that one morning a group of homos woke up to find that God had enlarged their brains, skulls and pelvises “all at once”.

DAVID: I'll stick with God and the evidence I have.

What evidence do you have that your God stepped in etc. as above?