Brain complexity: more important than size (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, November 24, 2017, 15:21 (2556 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: Thank you for these two very revealing articles. Crucially, the human brain has many more cells than that of the chimp and is three times larger. Regardless of whether you are a materialist (= the brain is responsible for thought) or a dualist, there can be little doubt that increased size (the number of cells) accompanies the number of abilities. ALL brains are complex, but nobody will pretend that the ant is capable of as many activities as we are! Bearing in mind the fact that modern science shows the brain changes when it is required to perform new tasks, the obvious conclusion in the context of evolution is that these changes take place according to the needs of individual species – these needs being related to the drive for survival and/or improvement. I suspect that the brains of our fellow animals do not go beyond improving their chances of survival, and in each case complexification can cope when the brain has reached its optimum size.

This comment of yours recognizes the difference in human and animal brains. We all have the same basis sensory and survival parts, some of which are completely automatic. They occupy the hind brain, the mid brain, the cerebellum, the hypothalamus, etc.

dhw: But pre-sapiens devised ever more complex ways of surviving (e.g. increasingly sophisticated tools and weapons, clothing, use of fire, social cohesion) which involved new tasks that required new skills which in turn required new cells to fulfil those tasks.

This resulted from the development of a larger frontal and pre-frontal cortex, ever larger with each jump of 200cc in size. The other parts basically did not enlarge.

dhw: Hence expansion, until brains could expand no more. From then on, complexification took over from the mix of complexification and expansion, as concepts gave rise to new concepts, culminating in all the improvements that go beyond the need to survive. All a natural progression that depends purely on the mechanism of brains reorganizing themselves in accordance with new requirements. No need for a God to preprogramme every single change or to dabble with every single brain even before changes are required.

I believe God designed brains to enlarge and contract within the same skull size at each stage of hominin development. No dabbling required as you observe. But God had to provide the 200cc enlargement of skull as each new 200cc of frontal lobe cortex was added by Him.

dhw:But it is perfectly reasonable to argue that such a mechanism requires design, and THAT is your strongest case for the existence of a designer (coupled, in my view, with unexplained psychic experiences).

Thank you.