Brain expansion (Evolution)

by dhw, Monday, July 06, 2020, 12:23 (1599 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: My theory does not exclude God, and the fact that you have faith in your own explanation (God changes organisms in anticipation of new requirements, and steps in to expand particular groups of brains, skulls and pelvises overnight) offers neither logic nor evidence to back it up.

DAVID: I'm at a different level of discussion since I sincerely believe God is the designer. Neither you nor I can offer precise factual evidence. You don't accept the logic I use to conclude God exists and acts.

I have just said that my theory does not exclude God! The discussion has nothing whatsoever to do with whether your designer God exists; it concerns how the process of expansion works – or in your terms, how God acts.

dhw: The dualist’s brain offers information for the soul to use, and so of course the soul’s thoughts depend on what information it has. That does not mean the brain thinks or has a capacity for thought. And the soul also depends on the brain for implementation of its thoughts. What else does the dualist’s brain do? Please tell us.

DAVID: The bold is a version of my dualist theory, without the proviso that the level of complexity of the soul's thinking is limited by the complexity of the brain the soul is using. A more complex brain allows more complex soul thought. Compare erectus thought to sapiens' thought as shown by artifact complexity levels.

After at last dropping your insistence that the brain thinks, you insist on a proviso which ignores the subject of this thread, the brain’s expansion! I explained all this in my post of last Saturday: “Thought and complexification are an ongoing, interactive process. Implementation of the dualist’s soul’s thought causes complexification of the brain. The new complexifications will now contain new information which may lead to the soul having new thoughts. Your “rule” leaves out half of the process – and it is the half that takes us back to the possible cause of brain expansion: namely, the fact that the brain RESPONDS to new requirements”. Once again: pre-erectus’s brain expanded through implementing new concepts. Its new complexities provided new information, which in turn could lead to new ideas, and these complexities proved adequate to cope with new ideas until the next “big idea” required another expansion. Enter sapiens. All based on the proven fact that the brain RESPONDS to requirements. It does not change in anticipation of new requirements.

DAVID (re shrinkage): This again shows you have forgotten we have free will and God doesn't know exactly how we will use it. I don't view this as a defect in my God.

dhw: So he just didn’t know he was giving us too many networks. Oops!

DAVID: Same distortion. Quit it!! I've said God knew we would put it into multiple uses and wanted us to do the modification ourselves by the plasticity mechanism He gave our brain.

dhw: I get it now. He deliberately gave us more new networks than we required,...But actually “we” don’t consciously, of our own free will, complexify or expand or shrink our brains. That is done by the cell communities of which our brains consist. And apparently they are able to complexify themselves and reduce their numbers autonomously, but for some unknown reason your God did not give them the power to autonomously add to their numbers.

DAVID: Our brain has adding ability especially in the hippocampus areas. You've forgotten recent entries of recent discoveries. Are you inventing another God error, to denigrate God? Of course our neurons know how to complexify. God gave astrocytes and neurons the ability.

Thank you. We now have the modern brain autonomously complexifying and expanding (= “with adding ability”), so why do you insist that past expansions had to be dabbled by your God? As regards “errors”, it is you who insist that your God gave us more new networks than we needed! I merely asked why, and you came up with the idea that he wanted us to do the shrinking. I’m amazed at your insights into your God’s mind.