Brain expansion (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, June 16, 2020, 11:34 (1619 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: […] please give me an example of a species that adapts itself to new conditions before those conditions arise. [...]

DAVID: The human brain is a great example: arrived 315,000 years ago and really used to full capacity in the past 10,000 years!

dhw: The human brain is not a species. The proven fact that it complexifies as a result of its adaptations to new requirements and does not complexify in anticipation of them suggests the exact opposite of your theory.

DAVID: Strange illogical twist. Study the enlarging brain brain and what it allows to be created. A direct reflection of your lack of understanding God's intent.

How does this prove that species adapt to new conditions before those conditions arise? The brain as it exists at any given moment does NOT allow new things to be created! It has to make changes when new ideas require implementation. In the past, the changes would have been complexifications and then expansions when the capacity was exceeded. In the sapiens brain, the changes are complexifications. Has anyone ever observed a brain changing itself before it is required to do so?

dhw: […] Why do you regard it as illogical that pelvises would adapt to the new size of skull, though there may have been many fatalities along the way?

DAVID: Logically the changes have to be simultaneous. Otherwise not some/many fatalities but both Mothers and babies die. You have never left your Darwin background wanting tiny adaptations. Gould left Darwin to show evolution is nothing but gaps.

dhw: You have left out my question: do you think the switch to large pelvises happened overnight? If not, how long do you think it might have taken?

DAVID: How large are the known time gaps?

That is not an answer.

DAVID [re the immunity system]: Totally backwards: contrary to all evidence. The library is created from scratch and filled with the newly constructed antibodies developed from existing intelligent instructions. The newborn only has colostrum at the start.

dhw: Intelligent instructions on how to do what? Even babies’ immune systems can fight some bacteria, and this “library” gradually expands. Are you saying that your God gradually adds instructions on how to deal with every infection that can happen? Or are you saying that your God has created a system which is able to create its own instructions on how to deal with each infection? “Intelligent instructions to build the library” sounds very like the latter to me.

DAVID: Your usual misinterpretation: the instructions are set for a lifetime of antibody responses.

WHAT instructions? How to deal with every new infection? That = a divine programme for every infection for the rest of time. Do you think our ancestors already had the cure for Covid-19 in their immune system?

DAVID (under “Immunity system complexity”): this is a protective mechanism that attempts to avoid allergic responses which are not necessary for immune defenses, but are mistakes. It must be part of an immune system design.

dhw: So the immune system was designed to make mistakes but it was designed to correct its mistakes. I would suggest that the immune system evolved continuously as its cells learned to deal with more and more infections [...] Nothing planned in advance, but a continuous learning process.

DAVID: Again misinterpreted, as above. God recognized mistakes might occur, as in unnecessary allergies.

I thought your first comment meant he had provided a mechanism to rectify the mistakes. Please tell me why you can’t accept my suggestion.

Under “Immunity system complexity”: “ This suggests a potentially adaptive response to local environmental pressures, including pressures from various tropical diseases.”

DAVID: Same story. Different homo species developed different forms of immunity based on geographical location. The immune programs which respond as necessary are all the same in each species.

I’m not sure what you mean by this. What “programs”? The diseases are different, so how can the responses be the same? I suggest that what is the same is that the cell community/ communities of the immune system create their own instructions on how to deal with each infection, and these sets of instructions are the different volumes to be found in the library of responses to different diseases.

DAVID: In your cellular committee self-creation theory can you explain why the brain was produced oversized in the beginning? A mistake? Purposeful? If purposeful, what purpose? Can you describe the committee's discussion?

dhw: It would be more appropriate to ask why your God produced an oversized brain in the beginning! A mistake? Or what possible purpose could he have had? Do please answer.

DAVID: The enlargement from God allowed complexification to work and shrink the brain, all according to God's plan. All the new abilities the brain contained allowed the soul to develop so many new activities for our enjoyment. None were adaptations.

It was all “God’s plan” does not explain why he produced a bigger brain than necessary! As for the “abilities” etc., see the post on the cerebellum and the violin. We should perhaps confine “adaptations” to changes required by environmental conditions. The spear and the violin demanded changes in response to new concepts, as opposed to new conditions.