Introducing the enlarging brain: human cerebellum different (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, June 16, 2020, 19:44 (1619 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: Where have I mentioned survival? Did I ever say that the illiterate women, the taxi-drivers and the musicians (including violinists) had to learn for the sake of their survival? Once more you are putting up a straw man of your own. You are right, though, to reprimand me on the use of "conditions". I should have written "requirements" to cover all contexts.

Here yet again is my proposal: once the sapiens brain had expanded to its natural limit, there was a period of comparative stasis (as with all our ancestors). The brain was not given new abilities! Even in your theory, do you think God said to sapiens: “Here’s a new brain. Now you can play the violin, but you won’t think of doing it for another 315,000 years.” The evolution of human society is the history of new ideas, whether there is a soul or not. And every new idea makes new demands on the brain, which complexifies during the process of implementation! Just as the concept of the spear would have demanded changes to the pre-sapiens brain for its implementation, so too did the sapiens’ concept of the violin. Sapiens wants to make music for his enjoyment, and he conceives of a new way to make new sounds. The implementation of the concept requires changes to the brain (= complexification). Pre-sapiens’ brain did not enlarge to sapiens size in anticipation of inventing and playing the violin, and sapiens’ brain did not complexify in anticipation of the concept! The brain changes IN RESPONSE to new requirements, not in anticipation of them.

In looking at the two paragraphs above, survival is not to be mentioned, yet there are, I
assume implied, serious requirements for human life that must be faced. You can't have it both ways. A giant jump in brain cortex and prefrontal cortex volume (about 300+ cc from erectus to us) implies a need for a very strong response, to use your words. You want it naturally to happen and I feel only a designer could create such a large change. Of course sapiens had no idea their original 315,000-year-old brain with its giant cortical areas would invent violin playing eventually. The design context of the newly arranged parallel groups of neurons of this new brain allowed that to be developed when used successively by generations of humans/souls. As I say, learning to use it. This is not higgedley-piggedley advance. It has every appearance of being a carefully thought out design. I'll stick with God, the designer.

QUOTE under “Dopamine”: MIT team found that in addition to the motor cortex, the remote brain area most affected by dopamine is the insular cortex. This region is critical for many cognitive functions related to perception of the body's internal states, including physical and emotional states.

DAVID: Dopamine like hormones markedly affect brain function, and we still do not know how much and how the effect varies in different parts of the brain. Before dhw explodes that this is pure materialism, it is. The brain is material and has certain compartmentalized functions, but its use by the soul/human is at an entirely different immaterial level when the output of thought is observed. It is at that level not understood.

dhw: You start out with the assumption that there is a soul. For a neutral, the question arises as to why the thoughts and feelings of an immaterial soul should be directly affected by material substances.

You've again raised the 'hard problem' of where dos consciousness come from. There is no current answer, and that is a strong argument for God the designer.