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

by dhw, Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 11:06 (1094 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Over and over again you have argued that the new sapiens cells were excessive and brains overexpanded from the beginning. I’m delighted that you now agree that the cells were useful, which can only mean that the brain was NOT overexpanded. And over and over again I have explained that they only became “excessive” when enhanced complexification took over from expansion and proved so efficient that some cells were no longer needed. Welcome to my theory.

DAVID: They were always excessive for final future use, no mater how you contort the descriptions.

A factory may need 100 workers until a new, more efficient process is developed, and then some workers will be made redundant. It is absurd to say that the redundant ones were always excessive for final future use. And so let me yet again explain my theory: the new cells were NECESSARY to meet a new requirement. They continued to be necessary to fulfil that requirement, would probably have continued to complexify on a small scale during the period of stasis, but when major new requirements arose and the brain did not/could not expand any more, complexification took over and was so efficient that some cells were no longer necessary. What are the contortions?

DAVID: It can also be said they were useful from the beginning for light use but not required for the heavier use later and dropped as excess. They were never meant to stay.

I propose that they were essential from the beginning, and continued to perform their essential function until…see the bold above. Redundancy is the result of improved methods, not some vague concept of destiny.

dhw: My point is that the autonomous ability to complexify and expand already existed prior to H. sapiens. There was no need for your God to perform operations to provide extra cells in anticipation of new requirements. The brain already worked autonomously as it does now, with cells RESPONDING to new requirements.

DAVID: I agree past brains operated much like ours, but God gave us each step in bigger more complex brains. Brains did not grow themselves.

If they operated much like ours, then they operated autonomously. Or are you now saying that your God pops in to complexify our brains (and expand the hippocampus) before we can think up our new ideas? In other words, if he exists, your God would have given earlier brains the same mechanism for autonomous complexification and expansion that we have now. I propose that the mechanism is cellular intelligence.

DAVID: I've granted they once might have been useful, but when no longer necessary they become excessive and removed.

dhw: Correct. Once more, welcome to my theory.

DAVID: I'm not following your theory. There can be no denying extra neurons were always present, and my interpretation grants they might have had some light use while they remained, but the excess neurons allowed us to remodel our brains to fit the heavy uses we learned to employ, language, abstract ideas, mathematics with invented number systems, etc.

They were not “excess” (= unnecessary) if they enabled us to remodel our brains! They only became “excess” when remodelling in the form of enhanced complexification was able to cope with all the new requirements with such efficiency that they were no longer needed.

DAVID: So heavily used brains are now 150 cc smaller. Making extras cells slightly useful in the beginning and then discarding them after complexification makes them an excess group of cells, used and then discarded.

Yet again: they were not “slightly useful” in the beginning. They were essential. If they hadn’t been essential, they would not have been added in the first place. And they would have continued to fulfil the same essential function until, as you rightly put it, complexification made them unnecessary or “excessive” to our needs. I make that four times in one post. Five times tomorrow?