Brain complexity: learning new tasks (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, December 07, 2017, 19:18 (2325 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: but clearly I am supposed to ignore the obvious contradiction when you say: “Only a larger more complex cortex can think of new more complex concepts.”

I am also supposed to ignore the contradictions I highlighted in my last post and which you have left out altogether in your responses. These simply repeat your belief that your God expanded the brain before it produced and implemented the new concepts, as if the repetition somehow removed the contradictions. Here once again is the section you have chosen not to respond to:

DAVID: You do not seem to understand my theory, A small brain is limited in the concepts it can develop. Pre-habilis could not understand the concept of spear. It took a habilis-sized brain to have the concept and implement it, both occurring in the same brain, not a subsequent larger addition.

dhw: I do not understand a theory that contradicts itself. Let’s forget pre-habilis, since you begin with habilis: “If habilis has an idea for spears, the idea is immaterial. No brain change.” So small-brained habilis has the idea. “Once he learns to knapp flint, attach the stone point to a wooden rod, and then practices throwing it with accuracy, there is no question that the brain has enlarged with all the muscle movement and visual coordination involved.” It is therefore the implementation that enlarges the brain, and so from then on we have a post-habilis with a larger brain. (You went on: “But then the brain complexified and shrank” – skipping to Homo sapiens and the Indian readers, when the brain had stopped enlarging.) According to you and to me, the concept comes first, the implementation then enlarges the brain until we reach sapiens, when it can expand no further. You have described the process perfectly. (My bold)

This is a total misinterpretation of what I have presented. It leave out brain contraction ability. What happened to your noting that my theory that brain enlargement and contraction occurred in all previous pre-sapiens might be correct. All enlargement from implementation was followed by complexity reorganization and thus contraction, occurring in the same size skull at each stage of evolution. Thus on the way from Lucy (400cc) there were rough jumps of 200cc in each stage. And in each stage new concepts could be developed by the larger brain and implemented meaning even further slight enlargement within the same sized skull. You leave out the contraction part!

dhw: Do you now wish to rescind all the above? If not, how do you square it with your insistence that your God had to enlarge the brain BEFORE the idea (which did not change the brain) and BEFORE the implementation (which enlarged the brain)? In other words, why must the brain be enlarged before it enlarges itself?

I don't have to rescind what I did not present. You have attemped to imply that when I discussed expansion that forced a 200cc expansion. I have never presented that view. I will maintain that artifacts prove the full abilities of the size of the brain being considered. And that size brain must be present to produce the artifacts , but first also develop the concepts from which the artifacts come.