The purpose of the brain

@chai2,

Our brain IS us.
We are our brain. - I dont think so
my argument is that we are the will
And the brain is just the executor

2 Replies

@livinglava,

I don't understand your point Lava.

It is basic evolution. The earliest animals didn't have brains. Animals developed brains because brains have a survival value, and human beings have even further developed brains because big brains help us produce offspring that can survive until adulthood.

Our brains wouldn't matter one bit if we didn't have genitals.

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@yovav,

Give us your definition of "will"

You seem to be thinking a persons "will" (in the way I am defining it) is outside ourselves as a human?

1 Reply

@roger,

They have no brain, they have the ability to preserve the material. It's a low-grade desire.

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@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

I don't understand your point Lava.

It is basic evolution. The earliest animals didn't have brains. Animals developed brains because brains have a survival value, and human beings have even further developed brains because big brains help us produce offspring that can survive until adulthood.

Our brains wouldn't matter one bit if we didn't have genitals.

My point is that animals like worms and insects can reproduce a lot to survive, so their brains don't have to do much beyond surviving and reproducing.

Animals like us, who only have a few offspring need to do more to help keep them alive. If we just reproduce and wander off looking for the next opportunity to reproduce again, the offspring from previous relationships have less chance of survival.

In short, the brain is important for parenting and not just achieving intercourse.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

Intercourse is part of parenting (although you can have intercourse without parenting, until recently humans couldn't parent with having intercourse)... but I get your point.

Modern society is screwing around with evolution. Stone Age humans had to have a lot more offspring. Lots of children died, and communities that didn't produce lots of offspring simply ceased to exist. It is only in recent history that human societies could tolerate adults that weren't reproducing.

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@maxdancona,

Darn... I rethought this, and now I disagree with myself. I have two kids who were created from someone else's semen (the idiot is completely out of the picture).

So, you can parent without intercourse. My point remains though. Historically, parenting has often started with intercourse.

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not a DEBACLE!!!!

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@maxdancona,

If not brain then what motivated them?
I argue that will.
Although at the lowest rank.
But a will had to be there in order to keep developing

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@yovav,

Again, what is this “will” you keep referring to?

If you’re speaking of the dedication, decision, judgement etc to see things through, that is part of the brains thought process.

There is no evidence there is this “other” thing that induces the brain to do this.

1 Reply

@margo,

And, lookee there. It's a Margo.

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@yovav,

yovav wrote:

If not brain then what motivated them?
I argue that will.
Although at the lowest rank.
But a will had to be there in order to keep developing

I don't know what you mean by "motivated". Are you anthropomorphizing them?

Many animals are simply "programmed" with a core set of instincts. They don't need a brain, or motivation, or a will. They just do what they do because it is in their genes.

Are plants motivated? Do plants have a "will"?

1 Reply

@roger,

A margo and a debacle in one fell swoop.....life is good

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@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

Intercourse is part of parenting (although you can have intercourse without parenting, until recently humans couldn't parent with having intercourse)... but I get your point.

I wouldn't use the word, 'parenting' to refer to anything involving intercourse. Parenting is what you do for children once they're outside the womb. If you are sleeping with your co-parent, that's not part of parenting; it's just your relationship with another adult.

Quote:

Modern society is screwing around with evolution. Stone Age humans had to have a lot more offspring. Lots of children died, and communities that didn't produce lots of offspring simply ceased to exist. It is only in recent history that human societies could tolerate adults that weren't reproducing.

Cultural evolution is part of evolution. Our brains and hands evolved the ability to make and refine tools and through the ages our ability to make and refine tools has evolved far beyond what most people's brains and hands can do by themselves from scratch, i.e. from raw materials.

We are still evolving to figure out how to temper our industrial evolution with our ability to foresee future/long-term effects of our industries. Just as we had to learn not to hunt herds to extinction once we figured out how to efficiently hunt as much game as possible, we also have to learn how not to harvest/use energy and other resources in ways that cause unsustainability.

So we use our brains not only to help our current offspring survive, but also to ensure that their offspring, and their offspring's offspring, and so forth all have the ability to live in ways that don't diminish future resources and thus the ability for future generations to have offspring as well.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

yovav wrote:

I don't know what you mean by "motivated". Are you anthropomorphizing them?

You have to reflect on what various forms 'motivation' could take for various life forms.

Quote:

Many animals are simply "programmed" with a core set of instincts. They don't need a brain, or motivation, or a will. They just do what they do because it is in their genes.

Genes express themselves through cellular reproduction and tissue development. Instincts emerge at a level beyond tissue-development. Yes, the brain consists of cells and tissue, but instincts don't happen at that level of the brain; they happen at a higher level of complexity that involves signal patterns throughout various parts of the brain simultaneously.

Quote:

Are plants motivated? Do plants have a "will"?

Plants have cells that cause them to reach/grow toward light, water, etc. There are some really neat time-lapse videos of this online. I also recall reading about the specific type of cells that determine whether a plant's stem bends one way or the other based on photoreceptors, I think, but I can't remember the source (I might be able to search for it if you look and can't find it, though).

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@chai2,

There are two forces in creation: light and the opposite of it. Light, it is a power of influence. The opposite force is the will to receive. Except for these two ingredients there is nothing! Everything else is a derivative of their combination and lies between them: the world, world history, everything you want.

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@chai2,

Everything consists of two opposite forces: electron and positron, plus and minus, north and south, and so on. These two forces are within each being
the will to receive exists only because it comes to life and comes to life by the will to bestow

1 Reply

@livinglava,

Quote:

We are still evolving to figure out how to temper our industrial evolution with our ability to foresee future/long-term effects of our industries. Just as we had to learn not to hunt herds to extinction once we figured out how to efficiently hunt as much game as possible, we also have to learn how not to harvest/use energy and other resources in ways that cause unsustainability.

That isn't so clear....

Quote:

Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd... it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most... and left the intelligent to become an endangered species.

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@yovav,

yovav wrote:

Everything consists of two opposite forces: electron and positron, plus and minus, north and south, and so on. These two forces are within each being
the will to receive exists only because it comes to life and comes to life by the will to bestow

That doesn't answer my my question.

Again, what is this “will” you keep referring to?

If you’re speaking of the dedication, decision, judgement etc to see things through, that is part of the brains thought process.

There is no evidence there is this “other” thing that induces the brain to do this

You can't speak of this "will" and not define it.

And also, where is your evidence everything exists because of "opposite forces" ?

That smacks of "I don't understand, so I'll call them opposite forces because it sounds like something that can't be questioned. The unwary will just accept it because I said it."

I question it. Saying everything is the result of "opposite forces" is a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

Again, define "will"

2 Replies

@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

If you’re speaking of the dedication, decision, judgement etc to see things through, that is part of the brains thought process.

A dedicated teacher can nevertheless lose the will to teach.
You can make a decision but not have the will to see it through.
You can exercise judgment without the will to carry out judgment (other meaning of judgment)

1 Reply

The purpose of the brain

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