Big brain evolution: brain size and intelligence (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, April 03, 2018, 11:41 (2424 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: You repeatedly agree with my interpretation of dualism, and then you repeatedly try to disagree by messing around with the vocabulary. You have agreed repeatedly that in life the s/s/c (software) does the thinking and uses the brain (hardware) to IMPLEMENT its thoughts (or to use the information provided by the brain). But back you go to “the s/s/c uses the brain to think”. And now suddenly you manufacture a brand new objection: “from a distance”. Where have you conjured that from? Of course in life the dualist’s immaterial self acts inside the material self. They would only separate at death or during NDEs. That is why NDEs are regarded as evidence that during life we consist of a material and an immaterial self. Please stop agreeing and then manufacturing reasons to disagree.

DAVID: The disagreement in my statement has to do only with the other issue between us: expansion of the brain. Only a more complex computer can handle more complex software. Only a larger brain can allow a more complex s/s/c to function in life.

This is where you muddy the waters with obfuscation. You agree that the s/s/c (software) does the thinking, and the brain (hardware) does the implementing. In dualism the s/s/c does not need the larger brain to “function”, i.e. to think its more complex thoughts. That would make the brain the source of thought. Only a larger brain can allow the IMPLEMENTATION of the more complex thoughts of the s/s/c in life.

DAVID: Your theory that the need for conceptualization forces the appearance of a larger brain has no basis in the facts we have before us. The "hot spots" in the genome that drove brain expansion are purposeful actions by God in my view.

It is not the need for conceptualization! You constantly try to change the terms you have agreed to. Conceptualization means thinking up ideas. My hypothesis is that the need to IMPLEMENT concepts forces changes in the brain. The facts we have before us are that the material implementation of immaterial concepts (e.g. by illiterate women, taxi-drivers, musicians) forces such changes as complexification, shrinkage, expansion in the modern brain. There is no evidence that brain changes precede the attempt to implement concepts. Why, then, should we believe that the pre-sapiens s/s/c and brain functioned differently, and brains had to change (in this case expand) before pre-sapiens could come up with the concepts that required implementation?