Brain complexity: learning new tasks (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, January 10, 2018, 15:20 (2509 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: You can argue that every new born brain - animal, hominin or sapiens - is a blank slate except for what is carried from the past. The latter is “nature”, and what is learned is “nurture”. How does that alter the fact that we KNOW the implementation of concepts changes the brain, whereas we have no evidence that the brain changes BEFORE it can come up with new concepts?

Evidence: Only newly enlarged brains are capable of producing new advanced artifacts.

DAVID: Your computer is not you, but your computer provides you with the ability to produce immaterial thought as material to be read. You are separate from your computer but you live with your brain as part of you. The s/s/c must use the brain in the same way. The NDE's tell us the s/s/c can separate and be functional.

dhw: More computer obfuscation. First you have the soul operating the soul, and now you have the computer enabling me/my soul/my consciousness to do its thinking! Does the computer enable the software to think? Or does it simply implement the instructions of the software?

I can think because I have an s/s/c which uses my brain to give me the thoughts. My material brain produces immaterial thoughts I have by the operation of the s/s/c.

dhw: I am separate from my computer but not from my brain, so I must use my brain “in the same way”: in the same way as what? As for NDEs, we know that software cannot function without a computer, whereas you tell us the soul can function without the brain. So what is the point of the analogy? My question to you was straightforward, and we do not need any analogies: Do you or do you not agree that the s/s/c uses the brain to gather information and to implement its concepts? What other concrete functions does it have?

The s/s/c uses the brain for information and concepts. The brain also runs the material functions of the body which the s/s/c can recognize and appreciate as a side issue for its main function.

DAVID: A thinking brain cannot cause enlargement of itself or its bony container, the skull, only shrinkage as shown by sapiens history.

dhw: Once again, nobody knows what caused brain enlargement, which is why we have so many different theories. However, if a thinking brain can cause shrinkage, it is not unreasonable to assume that it might also cause enlargement, just as physical exercise can cause enlargement of muscles.

And incidently tell the skull to enlarge by cellular committee agreement. Muscles are not bound by a bony case.