New Miscellany2: intelligence, savannah, Cambrian, origins (General)

by David Turell , Friday, March 28, 2025, 15:22 (6 days ago) @ dhw

More about cellular intelligence

DAVID: I remind you, Shapiro's theory is an extrapolation from what free-living bacteria can do.

dhw: Please stop pretending that Shapiro knows nothing about other life forms, and that you have greater knowledge of cell behaviour than Shapiro, Margulis, McClintock, Albrecht-Buehler and all the other scientists you have quoted on this website as believers in cellular intelligence.

Shapiro studied bacteria and applied their DNA editing ability to where it does not happen. The bolded heroes are your champions. I recognize only Margolis and McClintock as mainstream.

The savannah theory

DAVID: All we can know is they did descend. Why is unknown but I think God did it.

dhw: So why do the new findings “dilute” the savannah theory but don’t “dilute” yours?

The new findings don't change my view of God as designer.

The Cambrian

DAVID: It is always my point God designed the animals to handle the new conditions.

dhw: Your opinions vary day by day. You regarded this article as providing a logical explanation for the Cambrian.

Yes, a natural explanation.

The brain’s cleaning fluid

DAVID: Wow! evolution is progressive process, but God can design jumps for that process.

dhw: Are you saying that the human brain did not evolve from earlier mammalian brains?

It did, through God's design modifications.

The human brain

QUOTES: Our brain is wired up to be social.

"These findings challenge the idea of a single evolutionary event driving the
emergence of human intelligence. Instead, our study suggests brain evolution happened in steps. Our findings suggest changes in frontal cortex organisation occurred in apes, followed by changes in temporal cortex in the lineage leading to humans.”

dhw: I’m amazed that anyone should think human intelligence and/or the brain did anything but evolve in steps! And I would suggest that our brain was not wired up to be social, but being social was a crucial driving force in the wiring of the brain.

Agreed

QUOTE: "Richard Owen was right about one thing. Our brains are different from those of other species – to an extent. We have a primate brain, but it's wired up to make us even more social than other primates, allowing us to communicate through spoken language."

dhw: And language is also the product of our sociability, as an enhanced means of communication would have enhanced our ability to survive and to improve the conditions under which we survived. In brief, new wiring does not precede development but takes place in response to new conditions and ideas.

Our 315,000-year-old brain tells us it was designed in advanced= of need.

DAVID: finding this difference is not surprising. Connectivity is one form of complexification, another is an increased number of interconnected neurons. The human brain has more of both.

dhw: A neat summing up of the history of the human brain’s evolution: past brains complexified and expanded when they needed more capacity for complexification.

Yes.