Brain expansion: different theories about rapid expansion (Evolution)

by David Turell , Thursday, October 01, 2020, 17:06 (1302 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: My view of God's personality precludes His inventing independent mechanism for major advances. I am giving you my view. you have yours. We will not meet in the middle, as I do not see middle ground.

dhw: I know you have a fixed belief. But you have not yet given me a single reason why the alternative is not feasible! All you can offer is that you refuse to consider it!

Your approach of 'anything is possible' does include feasibility but again your do not view a God with the personality I think He has, purposeful and in full control. In all of your proposals He must relinquish some control.

DAVID: You want artifacts to appear before enlargement or to cause enlargement. My view, just opposite, is the enlarged brain is the one capable of creating the new artifacts and comes first as shown by the H. sapiens Moroccans, big brains, no new artifacts.

dhw: New artefacts are one possible driving force for enlargement. Please stop pretending you don’t know that there may be others, as emphasized by the Britannica article.

Why should I follow a Britannica article written from a pure Darwin point of view?

dhw: I do not want new artefacts to come BEFORE enlargement. My proposal is that the IDEA precedes enlargement, and it is the effort to design and implement the concept which requires additional brain cells. You know this perfectly well, and it is the reason why you repeatedly refuse to give a direct answer to this question, asked on the “corvids” thread: please tell me whether you think the soul is capable of thinking new thoughts, using the information provided by the existing brain.

Same twisted question. My view is the level of complexity of the brain allows the level of the complexity of thought by the soul. Which means, and you keep avoiding an answer to it, the brain's complexity defines and limits or allows the complexity of the soul's thoughts!!! Erectus could not have the complexity of thought and concept sapiens has with the bigger better brain. The issue is not just information, which is what you want to limit the brains use to by the soul. My conclusion is obvious from the archaeological evidence.

DAVID: Again not my nuance of theory: I strongly feel in my view of dualism, the soul must use the brain networks to create thought and is the driver of the creation. Of course in that process it uses information provided by the brain either sensory or from memory. How do you define 'information'?

dhw: As you do: knowledge gained through the senses or through experience. And we agree that the soul uses the information and is the “driver” of thought. As you refuse to give a direct answer to my question, let me help you by repeating our favourite example. Do you think a homo who wants to kill a bison, and who knows that the closer he gets, the more dangerous his task will be, is capable of thinking to himself: perhaps I could invent a weapon that will enable me to kill it from a distance? Or do you believe your God must operate on him to give him more cells BEFORE he can have such an idea?

If he is a sapiens he had no problem to think of it. The erectus used group kills according to findings. Stone age American Indians (sapiens) had spears and bows and arrows. My discussion is above. The example adds nothing to the concepts of brain size and complexity.