Brain complexity: learning new tasks (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, November 28, 2017, 17:59 (2552 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: My position stated well, but as the cortex remakes its connections it shrinks as in sapiens. See post of 5 minutes ago.

dhw: We don’t know if it actually shrank in pre-sapiens, but it makes no difference to the argument that expansion occurred when the existing brain couldn’t cope with new demands. Thank you for at long last accepting MY position. Having accepted it, I don’t know why you keep repeating the objections below.

I have not accepted your position. It is not a stretch to assume the expansion/shrinkage as a brain learns to perform different tasks began in the earlier hominin types. Earlier brains had the samecerebrospinal fluid layer I'm sure.

DAVID: You keep ignoring my concept of the brain as a receiver of a consciousness mechanism! Bigger brain receives a larger more complex consciousness.

dhw: The more the soul thinks, the more the brain has to expand to “receive” it. The thought precedes the reception, which precedes the expansion!

Again you leave out the contraction caused by complexification. Skull size never changes until the next iteration of hominin arrives!

DAVID: The soul uses the brain to think as the receiver of consciousness. Again conceive of it as computer and software.

dhw: If the brain is the receiver of the soul’s thoughts, it is the soul that does the thinking and the brain that does the receiving. The computer (brain) obeys the instructions of the software (soul). And in pre-sapiens times the brain had to expand in order to implement the instructions of the soul, whereas now it complexifies. What are you objecting to?

No. The brain, having received consciousness is used by the soul for thought, just as you use your computer to reply to me. As for pre-sapiens, expansion/contraction was undoubtedly an existing mechanism passed down to us so skull size remained unchanged. Our brain now complexities and shrinks. Remember, our skulls are slightly smaller than earlier!