Human evolution; savannah theory fading (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, August 12, 2022, 11:27 (623 days ago) @ David Turell

Brain expansion

dhw: […] you have accepted that the complexification mechanism through which “cells design their own improvements”, is autonomous – i.e. God does not pop in every time a new step results in complexification. Don’t you think new steps are an improvement? Now please tell us why you think that although your God created the mechanism enabling cells to complexify autonomously, he could not possibly have created the mechanism enabling them to add to their number.

DAVID: He gave cells that ability confined to the hippocampus. Obviously that is all He wanted to do.

I don’t understand. Are you saying that the hippocampus cells of all our ancestors had the autonomous ability to add to their numbers, but all other additional brain cells had to be designed and provided by your God?

dhw: Don’t you think enhancement means improvement?

DAVID: No, it means new networks for new uses with existing neurons which is an obvious improvement.

dhw: Enhancement means new networks for new uses with existing neurons which is an obvious improvement, but apparently that means it is not an improvement.

DAVID: I've just agreed, as above. What is your misinterpretation? New networks are an improvement.

So why did you say no? (Bolded)

dhw: My point is that these mechanisms [for complexification and expansion/enlargement] would have been there from the earliest hominin/homo brain onwards, in which case the improvements from the very first brain onwards would have been made autonomously by the cells themselves. Even if he individually inserted each set of additional cells, they would still have created improvements through the autonomous process of complexification. So what was left for him to “design”?

DAVID: He must design the enlargement of skull brain pan and enlargement of the new bigger brain with more neurons, with which complexification could work to handle new activities, etc.

dhw: That is the mechanism for enlargement/expansion!

DAVID: And obviously design the right sized pelvis for mommy to handle the bigger sized baby skull.

dhw: We have already switched from the savannah theory to brain expansion, and now you want to switch to the pelvis. We’ve been over that problem. Please stick to the subject. You keep harping on about God designing all previous brains (as well as our own), and I am asking what part of each new brain he designed, apart from the mechanisms for enlargement and complexification – the latter being autonomously responsible for improvements.

DAVID: You know the answer: the key enlargements were frontal and prefrontal cortex which were given the ability for complexification.

You have agreed that the ability for complexification was present in all early brains, and enlargement is enlargement, no matter which section of the brain is enlarged! Are you now saying that your God had to specially design all the cells that were added to earlier cortices and give them a special new ability for complexification?

DAVID: And you have offered no answer for the pelvic problem as before.

I asked about special designs for the brain other than the mechanisms for complexification and enlargement. It seems that you can’t think of any, and so you are trying to change the subject, which is the dodging tactic you keep using during our discussions of your illogical theories of evolution. You know my theory concerning the “pelvic problem”, which is precisely the same as my theory about all the problems posed to all species by changing conditions: intelligent cell communities learn to adapt. No doubt there would have been many instances of death in childbirth until those pelvises which adapted to the new requirements became the norm.