Human evolution; savannah theory fading (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, July 21, 2022, 08:09 (854 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: I think our brain acts like those in the past. Habilis and erectus had plenty of neurons to think and plan with to allow for the built-in complexification to work. All by God's designs.

dhw: I agree that our brains act like those in the past, except that when their brains’ capacity for complexification proved inadequate for new requirements, they expanded, whereas in our case, the new requirements were dealt with by enhanced complexification. I’m delighted to see that in this response you have dropped the notion that your God kept operating on various life forms in order to provide flippers or additional brain cells BEFORE they were required. […]

DAVID: Didn't you note I noted 'all by God's designs'?

I note that you did not mention your theory that your God kept operating on life forms and brains in order to change them before any changes were required. I am happy to allow for God as the designer of the mechanisms which enable complexification and expansion.

DAVID: You seem incapable of realizing how human you envision God to be.

dhw: In each of my theories I propose a particular theistic approach to evolution in order to explain the facts: experimentation, learning and getting new ideas as he goes along, deliberately creating a free-for-all as being more interesting than a puppet show (though always with the option of dabbling). I don’t see these “human” approaches as being any more “human” than your own belief that God enjoys creating and is interested in his creations, or – as you have now told us – that he wants us to think about him, recognize him, and ask questions.

DAVID: As explained in the other thread God's possible reactions to his creations are secondary events, never on purpose as a cause of creation.

I’m not talking about reactions! I asked you what was his purpose for creating humans, and the above was your answer.

DAVID: To explain again: We came with extra neurons in our brain so we could use our brain as we wished which gave us free will. The loss of superfluous neurons had nothing to do with losing free will with the remaining cells fully adequate to allow us to think freely.

dhw: So your new theory is that our extra neurons gave us free will – i.e. all our ancestors were automatons! Why, then, did these additional cells make our brain “oversized”? Clearly these new cells would have been of crucial importance to us! Hardly an explanation of shrinkage, is it? And still you refuse to explain why you find my theory unacceptable.

DAVID: Shrinkage must be recognized as clearly indicating we had excess neurons to begin with.

You are completely ignoring my proposal, which is that the neurons were NOT excessive to begin with. They would only have been added to the existing quantity if they had a function to perform! But later, when there were more new requirements, expansion was no longer practicable, and complexification took over, the latter proved so efficient that some cells which had earlier been necessary now become redundant.

DAVID: I'm sure all our ancestors had similar brains. Further expansion is not something to be considered in any way as your wild explanation. And the complexification process was at the ready when the brain was designed and at work. Otherwise your tortured theory is acceptable.

I have no idea what you mean by your second sentence. Yes, the complexification process was always present. I also have no idea what free will had to do with it, and I’m glad to see that has now disappeared. I also have no idea why my perfectly logical explanation of shrinkage is “tortured”.