Introducing the brain: how emotions relate (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, March 08, 2020, 10:54 (1719 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Computers are all the same “at birth” until they are programmed. But each baby has its own individual characteristics right from the moment of birth, and probably even before birth, since experts agree that babies already respond to certain influences while still in the womb. Your comparison is pointless. The brain is not a computer.

DAVID: I tried a comparison. The brain is not a computer, and I agree each baby brain contains some different underlying characteristics when born but there is no information intake until there is information intake to work with. That is my approach to the concept of 'blank brain'.

You might as well say babies are born blind and deaf until there are sights for them to see and sounds for them to hear. But even with your extremely limited approach, you ignore the fact that “information” is already passed to the baby in the womb.
See https://parenting.firstcry.com/articles/do-babies-cry-in-the-womb
So at what point would you say the baby’s brain has no “information intake”?

DAVID: Intelligence levels appear to be variable at birth, so some brains start with advantage or disadvantage.

dhw: Already an indication that the brain is not a blank!

DAVID: I understand your view. Mine is slightly different, stated above.

I’d say yours is totally different.

DAVID: IQ can be increased by teaching and training. My 'blank' is not about the brain as its inner construction attributes. The baby 'blank' state leaves the moment it starts to experience any input from the inside or the outside. Note this: most folks cannot remember before two years of age, because the proper memory elements haven't formed yet.

dhw: Nobody is saying the brain arrives fully formed! But its individual characteristics are not “construction attributes”; they are part of the personality. Now please give us your definition of the word “blank”.

DAVID: Each of us starts using our brain at birth with different attributes but it starts at a blank and each of our brains handles the inflow of info differently.

We start before birth, and if we all handle info differently, it could hardly be clearer that the brain is not an empty space. Why do you refuse to define the word “blank”?