Introducing the brain: general (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, February 25, 2022, 11:16 (1000 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: According to you, the process of complexification operates autonomously without your God’s intervention. If he exists, then that is the way he designed it. And so why should he not also have designed cells to autonomously add to their number as well as to complexify?

DAVID: Our only example we have is our brain. Fact: new neurons are vary limited to a small memory area. No enlargement mechanism is seen to exist. You are illogically assuming preceding brains were very different. What the fact supports is logically evolution is over
An enlarged mechanism is seen to exist in a small and limited area.

dhw: One small and limited area is enough to prove that the brain is capable of autonomous expansion!

DAVID: Complexification is an internal process in our brain that in no way explains how brains got bigger during evolution.

Of course it doesn’t. But if a very small area of our brain has expanded because of additional requirements, it is not unreasonable to suppose that in the past, when complexification could not cope with new requirements, the same process would have applied. You still like to skate over the fact that you believe the complexification mechanism works as and when required, independently of your God’s intervention, so once more: why do you think it was necessary for him to keep operating on all the hominins and homos when the same mechanism could have been used to produce new cells as and when required?

dhw: I’m inclined to agree that our brains and skulls are unlikely to expand any further, since I suggest that they stopped expanding in the first place because further expansion would have required major changes in our anatomy.

DAVID: Your final idea that 200 cc of more brain would cause major anatomic alterations is a constant very strange theory. Seven ounces is not a very heavy addition to handle.

One moment you talk of our uniquely huge brain, and the next moment the addition is minimized. Neanderthal brains were bigger than ours, and their anatomy was different from ours. But I’m only theorizing. What is your explanation for the end of expansion in favour of complexification. Do you think your God might have been trying out different designs? (See "More miscellany")

Neurons may make future plans

DAVID: I view this as an attempt to understand complexification.

I’ve had trouble understanding the article. Please could you explain to me what exactly neurons are believed to predict.