Big brain evolution: brain size and intelligence (Evolution)

by David Turell , Friday, April 13, 2018, 16:50 (2414 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: I can only go back to what I have presented. In life the s/s/c must use the brain which with it is interlocked. Its mechanism in life requires that. In death or NDE it operates differently and can think without the brain interface. The s/s/c has two different forms and function. And it is a pure energy (as God is) format. What I propose is the s/s/c has dual forms. I have a right to propose my own theory of dualism. There is the obvious dualism of material brain and immaterial personality/ thoughts implemented to appear through the work of the brain, along with two forms of the immaterial quantum energy s/s/c.

dhw: You have the right to propose any theory you like, but the object of our discussions is to test theories to see if they make sense. If the s/s/c is “pure energy”, I don’t see how it can have two different forms. Clearly, if it survives the death of the brain it will function or “operate” differently, since NDEs suggest that it can still perceive, communicate, think, feel etc., but it will “interface” with a different reality and has no material means of expressing itself (hence perhaps communication by telepathy). But that is irrelevant to our discussion, which only concerns how it functions or operates IN LIFE, and here you have specified “the obvious dualism of material brain and immaterial personality/thoughts implemented to appear through the work of the brain”. I’m glad this is obvious, as it answers the question I keep asking you, though for some reason you never answer with a simple yes or no. Even to you it now seems “obvious” that if the immaterial self exists, IN LIFE it does the thinking and the brain does the implementing. It should therefore be equally obvious that if your form of dualism is correct, IN LIFE there is no need for the brain to expand or complexify before the immaterial self comes up with new immaterial thoughts. It needs to expand or complexify in order to implement the new immaterial thoughts, as proven by modern science (with sapiens shrinkage probably the result of efficient complexification). The alternative to this is materialism, and one of these days I’ll find time to expand on the reconciliation hypothesis I proposed earlier!

The point we disagree upon is brain complexity in life in this way: since the s/s/c must interface with the brain and rely upon it to functionally think, only a more complex brain allows more advanced thought. Thus only a larger brain with an expanded thought area (prefrontal cortex) allows for the development of highly complex concepts, as proven by the artifacts at each level of brain complexity in earlier hominin fossils. The history of sapiens is compatible with my approach: we are present for 315,000 years with big brains, but have only learned how to use them in extreme complexity (as shown by our artifacts) in the past 10,000 years. If our most previous ancestors had 'immaterial thoughts' that required expansion (your 'push' concept) why was there a delay of 305,000 years for those thoughts to appear and be implemented?