Brain expansion (Evolution)

by dhw, Friday, June 26, 2020, 11:17 (1609 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Same contradiction: your soul wants new concepts to develop, but delays after the adequate new brain is present for them to reach fruition. Why the wait?

dhw: What delays are you talking about? In my theory, expansion happens when the existing brain does not have the capacity to implement (bring to fruition) a new concept thought up by the soul. The process of implementation leads to the expansion.

DAVID: 'Implementation' means the appearance of the new invention at the time the new brain appears. Yet we both agree about a stasis period.

dhw: I still don’t understand what contradiction you are talking about.

DAVID: Fully explained. Your theory demands expansion from force of a new concept, as I understand it. Which logically brings up the contradiction, why stasis after forced expansion?

Because, as you agreed on the other thread, stasis means nobody came up with any new ideas. What does this contradict? Do you think the implementation of a concept through expansion must automatically lead to new concepts? Why? Yet again, it is the dualist’s soul, not the brain that comes up with concepts.

DAVID: His complexification mechanism ran on its own.

dhw: Thank you. And if he could create an autonomous complexification mechanism, why do you think he couldn't create an autonomous enlargement mechanism?

DAVID: I've told you He can with guidelines, which you inexplicably won't accept. Do you think the complexification mechanism is simple to design?

dhw: You’ve just said “His complexification mechanism ran on its own”, and now you’re back with your guidelines which = preprogramming or direct dabbling – the exact opposite of “on its own”. If your God designed an autonomous mechanism for complexification, why could he not have designed an autonomous mechanism for expansion? What has “simplicity” got to do with it?

DAVID: I didn't say the complexification was simple.

You asked if I thought the complexification was simple to design. I don’t understand the relevance of the question.

DAVID: The extra neuron circuits had clear guidelines for the necessary changes. Guidelines work.

If by that you mean that the extra neuron circuits would have come into being to serve a specific purpose, of course I agree. They would provide the means of implementing the concept which existing neurons could not manage. That is how cell communities work: they RESPOND to new requirements. How does this answer my bolded question above?

DAVID: The over-expansion was necessary.

For what? Your theory has God dabbling more neurons than necessary and then you have the complexification system removing the superfluous ones “on its own”. What a mess! Why can’t you stick to our earlier agreement? In the sapiens brain, complexification took over from expansion and proved so efficient that certain cells were no longer needed.

dhw: The video does not deal with the development of a single organ, but with SPECIATION! Of course every fossilized “form” functioned completely – otherwise it couldn’t have lived, but every “form” in the video means every new species.

DAVID: Exactly the point: each new species is fully formed to function properly, not simple adaptation.

dhw: You have forgotten the point, which is the ongoing expansion of an existing organ, the brain – not the formation of new species.

DAVID: You've forgotten. Each bigger brain is in a new species. Brain don't enlarge in a vacuum.

You are playing around with the word “species”. The different homos and their brains were not brand new life forms with no known antecedent, and you’ve answered your own question. Brains don’t enlarge in a vacuum, they enlarge from brains that already exist. The expanded brain is bigger than the previous brain. It is not a new species!

dhw: New thoughts appear using EXISTING brain complexity (the spear example). And what on earth is “the thought quality of brain”? Once and for all: in dualism the soul does the thinking. Yes or no? It uses the brain for information and for implementation as defined above. Yes or no?

DAVID: Yes and no. Please add, in life, the soul must use in its companion brain to create thought, the complexity dependent upon presently existing brain capacity for complex thought.

I have explained precisely HOW the soul uses the brain. The complexity of thought does not depend on existing brain capacity for THOUGHT. The dualist’s brain does not do the thinking! Stop muddying the waters!

DAVID: Does new-sized brain and artifact appear simultaneously? What happened to stasis? That is the gross weakness of your idea.

Yes, the new-sized brain and the new artefact appear simultaneously, because the artefact can only appear when the brain has finished expanding sufficiently to produce it. What is your problem with stasis? The new-sized brain has implemented the concept. That does not mean that our homo now has to think up lots and lots of new concepts! We have agreed: stasis means “nobody came up with any new ideas”. There is no mystery here. My theory is all the stronger for the fact that you can’t seem to find any other weakness!