More "miscellany" PARTS ONE & TWO (General)

by David Turell @, Sunday, April 09, 2023, 15:43 (355 days ago) @ dhw

Brains

dhw: I have proposed that ancient brains would have followed the same pattern of development as our own, in which the brain only changes IN RESPONSE to new requirements (cause and effect), not IN ANTICIPATION of them. Previous brains expanded, whereas ours now changes by way of enhanced complexification. And I have asked why David regards this theory as unreasonable.

Using our brain as an example, dhw ignores that our 315,000-year-old brain is still working just fine for now and all future uses, just as past brains did.


Multilingual reading

QUOTE: "Learning several writing systems could therefore shape the visual cortex to the point that certain groups of neurons specialize in reading one alphabet.

DAVID: remember, this brain given to us 315,000 years ago to handle needs then and is handling very new needs now. The new brain was built to handle any future event. In speciation God designs for future needs. It obviously handles immediate needs at first.

dhw: Thank you for your last comment. The whole point of this discussion is that the new brain comes into existence in RESPONSE to IMMEDIATE needs, not in ANTICIPATION of them. Once it exists, of course it deals with ongoing needs. In the past, this would have continued through complexification until the capacity for complexification was exhausted. And then once more, a new requirement meant the need for new cells. In our case, however, the capacity for complexification has been so enhanced that additional cells are no longer necessary. The above quote shows precisely how the system works: the neurons respond to each new task. They do not change before the new task exists.

I think our brain tells us past brains do not make new neurons just like ours. Hippocampus excepted. For immediate and future use expansion required. A new species must appear.


Responses without a brain

DAVID: Only bacteria code DNA!! Multicellular cells don't do it!!!

DAVID: You are so muddled about Shapiro, in your struggle about intelligent cells you wish exist! Shapiro showed how bacteria edit their own individual DNA. He then theorized that might be the answer to how speciation and evolution proceeded. Pure unproven theory since he retired. I have found no advances by anyone!

dhw: You have simply repeated what I have already said: you reject his theory! You prefer your own unproven theory that your God engineered all speciation individually, including the 99% that had no connection with what he wanted to engineer. Now please tell us why, if single cells can autonomously edit their DNA, you find it logical that they lose this ability when they form communities.

Because that is what current biology shows. We see limited adaptability, not speciation.


Snowball Earth

DAVID: God could design advances despite conditions.

dhw: His ability to fit his designs to any environment does not explain WHY he decided not to control environmental changes and therefore had to restrict his designs to new ones which could fit in with the new conditions (resulting in 99% that had no connection with his one and only purpose).

You are agreeing with me. Evolution is a messy way to go.


How proteins fit together

dhw: Hold on, hold on. Even if you believe in design theory, you don’t have to believe in total design for everything that has ever existed! […] (dhw's editing)

DAVID: It is certainly reasonable God accepted chance events if they fit His purpose.

dhw: I told you in yesterday's entry what were the “real natural chances”. So the massively important process of symbiosis (including protein symbiosis) can be by chance, environmental changes are by chance except when they are not, and all the unpredictable elements of experimental research or of a free-for-all would enhance your God’s enjoyment of and interest in creation and his creations, which would make for a perfectly logical purpose totally in keeping with your belief that he and we have similar thought patterns and emotions.

My God doesn't need our forms of entertainment like your guy does.


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