Brain expansion (Evolution)

by David Turell , Thursday, July 23, 2020, 18:41 (1372 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: The only evidence we have is artifacts. As for environment they used caves at first. So no help there, as housing appeared much later for sapiens. I'll stick with Go/d doing the enlarging.

dhw: I have just said (now bolded) that artefacts are the only concrete evidence we have. Coping with changes in the environment is not confined to living in caves – but it is pointless trying to pinpoint specific events that would have triggered the expansion. NOBODY knows the cause, and so there is no theory that can provide conclusive evidence. And I wonder how many specialists in the field subscribe to your theory of an overnight divine dabble.

dhw: It is the implementation of the new idea that causes expansion, just as the implementation of new ideas and requirements causes complexification in the sapiens brain.

DAVID: I realize that implementation requires design and planning and then production, and in my view requires a more complex brain to allow the soul to do that implementation.

dhw: Agreed. And I propose that it is the process of implementation of new ideas and requirements that causes the modern brain to be more complex, and earlier caused it to expand, whereas you presumably agree that implementation causes the modern brain to be more complex, but you propose that in earlier times your God had to step in and dabble the expansion BEFORE the dualist’s soul could come up with new ideas and requirements.

The bold is not a correct interpretation of my view. The larger-than-needed brain allowed us to tailor the already given complexity to our preferred uses of the brain. But certainly, implementation of new ideas, developed by that complex brain, played a large role in the process.

DAVID: Self-tailoring is obviously refinement of what we were given and we got rid of extra neuron networks, as history tells us, as unnecessary. Very obvious.

dhw: I know we got rid of the extra, unnecessary neurons. Did we use them or didn’t we use them? You say we didn’t (there was stasis, and only when we started getting new ideas did the 150 cc disappear), so why do you think your God gave them to us in the first place during that remarkable night when he stepped in to perform simultaneous operations to expand the brains, skulls and pelvises of Mr and Mrs Pre-Sapiens and their tribe?

DAVID: I'll repeat., again: To allow us to use the brain as we wished so that the eventual brain would exactly fit our uses.

dhw: So God gave us what we needed plus 150cc extra. We didn’t use the extra (270,000 years of stasis) but it “allowed” us to think what we wanted to think. Perhaps I shouldn’t ask you how our not using it “allowed” thoughts we didn’t have, or thoughts we did have after 270,000 years, when it still wasn’t used and therefore disappeared. Perhaps I should just leave you to think what you want to think.

Your-tongue-in-cheek description gets it!!! New ideas took a long time to appear. The first sapiens were pretty sluggish thinkers, but they finally got the hang of it, but from the beginning they were way beyond apes.