Evolution and humans: big brain size uses energy (Evolution)

by David Turell , Sunday, October 29, 2017, 13:32 (2580 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: You are troubled by the word 'allows'. Let's use the computer analogy again, A more complex computer permits more complex operations to be performed. A more complex brain allows more complex concepts to be developed. The artifacts found with the fossils clearly demonstrate that as the brain became larger, more sophisticated activities occurred. Size first.

dhw: There is no analogy for the relation between brain expansion and consciousness, since nobody knows the source of consciousness or the reason why the brain expanded. But even with computers I wonder which came first – the need for computers/tools (and then for more complex computers/tools) leading to their making, or people making computers/tools (and then more complex computers/tools) when there was no need for them. In any case, the artifacts cannot possibly tell us which came first: the idea for the artifacts or the larger brain that enabled them to be produced.

Computers were developed because early on it was recognized how useful they would be. I think from your comments, that you do not understand capitalism. The need was recognized and then computers were developed and improved so the manufacturers could make profits, pure and simple. As for artifacts, more sophisticated ones appeared associated only with larger brains. The inference that larger brains were the source, strongly implies the larger brains were required to allow the inventiveness.