Inquire about purchasing the book | Table of Contents | Annotated Bibliography | Class on Nature of Mind
These are excerpts and elaborations from my book "The Nature of Consciousness"
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The Origins Of Brains The anthropological record
tells the story of a dramatic increase in brain size that happened over a
relatively short period of time. Humans
became "intelligent" suddenly and very rapidly. Many scientists and
philosophers believe that this rapid increase in brain size must have been
driven by a self-amplifying process. The typical self-amplifying
processes are positive feedback loops, in which growth is triggered by growth
itself, and there is nothing to stop the growth. The state of the system is out
of control. (In negative-feedback systems, such as a furnace for heating a
house, there is a control mechanism, e.g. the thermostat. that controls growth
for the purpose of maintaining a desired state). A positive feedback would
explain the rapid evolution of the brain.
The British philosopher Nicholas Humphreyargues that positive feedback
may have come from pressure for "social intelligence", the need to
communicate and share with other members of our species. The British biologist Ronald Fisherthought that sexual selection
was a form of positive feedback, and this thesis was also defended by the US
psychologist Geoffrey Miller. Back to the beginning of the chapter "Inside The Brain" | Back to the index of all chapters |
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