Brain expansion (Evolution)

by David Turell , Tuesday, June 16, 2020, 20:02 (1619 days ago) @ dhw

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?

dhw: That is not an answer.

Of course it is. Each new hominin. homo species with larger skull appeared suddenly after hundreds of thousand s of years

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

dhw: 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?

Total misunderstanding. All diseases can be handled by several immune mechanisms; outright killing (engulfing bugs) and antibodies to kill or neutralize. The instructions are in all immune cells for these actions. No program for all possible present and future bugs. Anything that comes along can be dealt with by present lilmited responses.

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.

dhw: 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.

See the other thread. Unfortunately high speed molecular reactions can make unanticipated mistakes, despite the many built-in corrective mechanism that are present

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.

dhw: I’m not sure what you mean by this. What “programs”? The diseases are different, so how can the responses be the same?

Described above.

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.

dhw: 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.

Bigger brain explained as allowing the appropriate complexification to occur to handle the new invention of activities humans developed like violin playing. Briefly it gave the bigger brain much more flexibility of response to the soul's new demands