Big brain evolution: brain size and intelligence (Evolution)

by dhw, Wednesday, April 04, 2018, 11:21 (2423 days ago) @ David Turell

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.
dhw: 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: The problem is your refusal to accept my concept of software/hardware. As IQ shows brains differ in their thought capacity which means the s/s/c can only go so far in intelligence based on the brain it is attached to.

The problem is your refusal to accept your own concept of software as the producer of thought and hardware as the implementer of thought. What do you mean by “brains differ in their thought capacity”? If you think intelligence depends on the brain (and it may well do so), you are a materialist, so yet again: do you or do you not believe that your s/s/c does the thinking and your brain does the implementing? Yes or no?

dhw: 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?
DAVID: Because each change in size involved the prefrontal cortex with each increase in size and capacity producing more advanced artifacts. We have no evidence that Einstein's hat size was extraordinarily large. You want a natural cause for enlargement. I chose God as the agent of change.

Yes, in your dualistic life the increase in size and capacity of the brain gave material form to the more advanced artefacts which had been thought up by the s/s/c: Conceptualization by the s/s/c followed by implementation, which changes the brain. Einstein’s hat was not extraordinarily large because, although you tell us his pfc was extra large, the brain itself remains within the confines of the skull, which has stopped expanding. You choose to believe that the brain changes in advance of new concepts, which in pre-sapiens were not possible until enlargement had taken place. New concepts as a consequence of brain changes runs counter to the evidence noted above, as well as to your dualistic belief that we have a thinking soul (software) and an implementing brain (hardware). But you refuse to recognize the dichotomy in your beliefs.