Evolution: more genomic evidence of pre-planning Part One (Evolution)

by dhw, Thursday, April 22, 2021, 08:44 (1093 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw:[...] I keep answering your objections, and you keep ignoring my own: WE KNOW THAT THE MODERN BRAIN CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO NEW REQUIREMENTS, NOT IN ANTICIPATION OF THEM. WHY WOULD IT HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT IN THE PAST?

DAVID: Excess is excess no matter how you contort it. You are proposing a light use of all neurons in the brain when enlargement occurs, and with heavy use later 150 cc of them disappears. Strange, so heavy use makes some neurons unnecessary? Heavy use in our current brain grows volumes of new axon connections, which tells us any heavy use simply enlarges axon networks.

And STILL you go on ignoring the question written in block capitals. You are now repeating my own theory in different terms, as if somehow that invalidated it! Yes, once the brain had expanded to 1350 cc, all cells would have been used. We don’t need your new category of light and heavy use, which glosses over the central issue of requirements. 250,000 years after this final expansion, new requirements would have been met by further expansion, but as presumably the brain could not expand any further, the new requirements resulted in new connections and enlarged networks, which we have previously called “complexification”. And because the new connections and enlarged networks (complexification) worked so efficiently, the previously essential cells were no longer necessary. Now please answer the question I have written in block capitals.

DAVID: We know our early brain was lightly used, but had great potential for complex use. As for the past I assume, as you do, the process was the same: enlargement in anticipation of future use with some excess neurons discarded as complexification occurred to fit the new uses. And of course with God as the designer.

Of course it had potential. That does not mean your God stuck in an extra 150cc which were not needed at the time. And as for the past, no, I do not believe that the process was in anticipation of future use or that excess neurons were discarded! Why are you shoving your theory onto me? I am proposing that there were never any excess neurons until sapiens' enhanced complexification came into force. In the past, when complexification could no longer cope, I propose that there was enlargement to meet new requirements, not to anticipate future use. But it is possible that your God was the designer of the autonomous mechanism which you agree runs complexification, but which you refuse to even consider as the source of expansion.

dhw: There is no evidence that your God kept popping in to operate on the brains of sleeping hominins and homos in order to prepare their brains for some future requirements! What do you mean by they were not “chosen” for complexity? Since the only chooser you believe in is your God, are you saying that your God deliberately gave early sapiens 150 cc unnecessary cells, and 250,000 years later decided he didn’t need them for complexification? Why do you find your God’s little blunder more convincing than the proposal that enhanced complexification made previously needed cells redundant?

DAVID: Blunder? Denigrating God as usual. The extra cells allow for precise tailoring in complexification, since we have free will and can choose our own uses of the brain without God's guidance. Free will is an important part of the equation you don't consider.

It is you who denigrate your God by claiming that he gave us excessive neurons which proved unnecessary. Now suddenly you change your tune: the 150 cc were not excessive – now you think they were essential for the way complexification worked, and they even gave us our free will (which denotes the autonomy of complexification). So why were they made redundant?

DAVID: The official theory is when language appeared it required the recruitment of several brain areas to develop and tie to each other in stronger networking fashion.

dhw: Precisely. The brain areas were already there, and there is no reason whatsoever to believe that they were not being used. Do you really think our ancestors never communicated? But the new requirement (a more complex form of language) required new networks (connections plus a degree of restructuring), i.e. complexification.

DAVID: There are thousands of languages. The excess cells allowed for precise networking to fit each language. Makes my point.

Then why do you call them excess if we couldn’t have managed to speak our languages without them?

dhw: …why do you persist in ignoring current knowledge, that the brain RESPONDS to requirements and does not rearrange itself in anticipation of future needs?

DAVID: We still totally disagree in interpretation. God designs the larger brain for future use by free-will hominins/homos in all stages.

Repeating your fixed belief is not an answer to my question.