Brain complexity: learning new tasks (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, December 22, 2017, 11:12 (2529 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Bearing in mind that you are a dualist, let’s keep it simple: do you or do you not believe that consciousness (not the brain) conceives concepts, and do you or do you not believe that consciousness uses the brain to implement its concepts?

DAVID: I believe that consciousness/soul uses the brain to develop concepts and implement them. Consciousness is the software and the brain is the hardware. Since I am connected to my consciousness through my brain, and since I am the sole administrator, I run the show. Seamless.

You know how I love precision, so indulge me: two straight questions that simply require a yes or a no. Do you, as a dualist, believe that consciousness/the soul conceives concepts before using the brain to implement them? And do you accept that the implementation of concepts causes changes to the brain?

dhw: Then you agree that what was “waiting to be used” was not the size of the brain or the existing complexities of the brain which had resulted from previous usage, but the plasticity of the brain which enabled it to complexify still further through new usage.
DAVID: No. 300,000 years ago a newly enlarged brain, which came from a much more complex pre-frontal cortex, was now available for much more complex conceptual use when we finally learned how to use it 10,000 years ago as real civilization began.

What do you mean by “conceptual use”? There is a difference between a concept and the implementation of the concept. According to you as a self-proclaimed dualist, the brain does NOT provide the concept. And so the size is only relevant to the implementation. Since approx. 300,000 years ago, implementation no longer led to expansion but instead caused complexification. And 10,000 years ago, it seems most likely that an explosion of new concepts would have resulted in an explosion of new connections as the brain complexified through implementation of the concepts.

DAVID: Your summary simply fits my thoughts. Bigger brain, then bigger use. Size and complexity of cortex arrives and then is used with more complexity of thought and with plasticity responses to mold the brain to the new uses.

The difference between us is your insistence that your God expanded each pre-sapiens brain BEFORE it came up with its new concepts. So let me try once more: If you agree that new uses change the brain (as proved by modern science) – as opposed to the brain changing in anticipation of new concepts – then the sequence is new concepts, bigger brain to implement them, e.g. concept of spear comes first, making and using spear causes bigger brain. Bigger brain is able to perform new use plus earlier uses, but when new concepts arise, bigger brain needs to get bigger again to implement them. Final size arrives 300,000 years ago, and is able to perform all existing uses. But now new concepts lead to more complex brain instead of expansion. Plasticity enables pre-sapiens expansion and sapiens complexification. Please pin-point whichever of these statements you disagree with.