Evolution and humans: big brain size or use (Evolution)

by dhw, Wednesday, June 28, 2017, 13:24 (2703 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: […] you believe that the immaterial you will continue to exist after the death of the brain, with the same capacity to think, the same memories, the same ideas. This is why it is a total contradiction for you to argue that in life the immaterial "you" cannot think or conceptualize without the brain, which you yourself keep telling us is only a RECEIVER.
DAVID: Your concept of brain as a receiver is that it is a passive receiver. I've never said nor implied that.

The brain as a receiver of consciousness (as opposed to a transmitter) is YOUR concept. I remain neutral. And a receiver by definition is passive.

DAVID: Yes the brain receives the consciousness which it ACTIVELY uses under my direction to create all the attributes of my personality. All of what is created is immaterial, and leaves my body in death to join the afterlife all of which is immaterial. Events in the afterlife have been described, mainly as receiving information. Whether 'souls' discuss ideas, have conversations, etc. is unknown to me.

How can the receiver brain use YOUR consciousness directed by YOU to create the personality which is YOU? You now have YOU directing the brain to make YOU! Over and over again, you have agreed that you and your consciousness are an inseparable entity. It is that entity which uses the brain. As for NDEs, you know very well that patients report conversations, which you say are conducted by telepathy. On Monday you confirmed your belief that in the afterlife the conscious self continues to exist with its capacity to think. Do you really believe that the ever probing Turell mind will stop thinking for itself and yet you will still be you?

dhw: I am suggesting that at some time in the past the brain reached a size beyond which it could not grow without serious consequences for the rest of the anatomy, and so later modifications took place through rewiring and densifying, as with the illiterate women. Shrinkage, I suggest, is the result of efficient densification.
DAVID: Your statement is true but avoids my comment about your internal drive theory that the wish for more concepts grows the brain.

That is NOT my theory, and in any case my theory is based on your beliefs, not mine. Once more : 1) the mind comes up with a new concept and wishes to IMPLEMENT it; 2) the IMPLEMENTATION requires changes to the brain; 3) the changes to the brain enable the concept to be implemented.

DAVID: Habilis did not know what it did not know.

Obviously. But habilis came up with a new idea (a spear), and then its brain had to expand in order to implement the idea.

DAVID: These woman could learn to read because the brain they were given had a built in capacity to learn to read. All they had to do was use it. You cannot deny that. I'm sure habilis could not read.

In order for the women to be able to read, their brain had to undergo some rewiring. The concept of reading (new to them) came first, and the effort to read caused the rewiring. Habilis never came up with the concept of reading or of motor cars or of airplanes, but his conscious mind (if you believe in dualism) did come up with the concept of spear-making and spear-throwing, and the effort to implement the concept caused the growth of the brain.