Gaming World Forums
General Category => General Talk => Topic started by: Xeno|Soft on February 26, 2008, 11:14:07 pm
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I heard a theory in class that like the human body, the brain has evolved (of course.) but that wasn’t the main focus of the theory. It went deeper into trying to discover what exactly the brain evolved from and what functions are 100% gone, what functions are still dormant, and what functions are still active but serve to no use.
So I wanted to see if we could have a discussion and see what people thought.
My personal opinion:
I believe that the brain has other functions, perhaps other emotions unknown to us that are gone, instincts that are no longer used (dormant) And even the large mass of our brains that scientist label as “spare parts” could have been used for something else.
Since we don’t live in a “live or die” world anymore (jungle, wildlife.) emotions that drive us to do certain things are really useless in society. Perhaps emotions like jealousy were there to preserve humans dominance over his or her mates in retrospect to other candidates.
Perhaps fear and anger never come from each other, but through evolution our brain has come to merge them into one. I also think that many emotions are evolving from one to another we are perhaps in still in transition too. Like the urge to surpass someone better than you, doesn’t that stem for jealousy in a sense?
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Considering the brain is still pretty ambiguous to NEUROSCIENTISTS it should be interesting to see what 99.9% of uneducated GW has to say.
I think there is one or two persons (Omcifer?) on GW actually studying in either neurology or some very similar topic.
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This is an area I am very interested in. It is a fact that the human being only uses 10% of it's brain. This is due largely, I believe, to societal norms and the reality we contruct imposing what we can and cannot do with our minds.
Real life is sort of like the matrix. It is made of rules, some of which can be bent and some can be broken completely. Using 10 % of our brain power is one of these rules. Those that bend the law go on to do great things, people like Michael Jordon and Stephen Hawking. Those that break the law completely go on to do supernatural things, and you don't read much about these people simply because they don't want you to.
The ancients of old understood the power of the mind over the body, and understood that they could do anything they set their minds to. The great sages and practitioners of Magicks in Atlantis became too powerful though, so maybe this imposition of only using 10% of our brain power was somehow set up to prevent us from falling into the same fate as the Atlantians.
Some of us, though, are at the edges of breaking the 10% barrier and unlocking our full mental powers. People like psychics, mindreaders and the such have not yet reached the full potential of the immensley powerful human mind but they are well on their way.
In case you are wondering why I know all of these things, I myself am training to become a user of mentalepathy (a term I coined to describe any use of mental processess to effect the material world). Right now I can focus energy into my hands and feel them heat up, and I have launched a psi-ball before. I have a friend that trains with me and he once did a psi-wave and it knocked me off my feet!
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climbtree how long until you can move planets/stars with your powers?
answer thius plx
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Once you ascend to a certain level of mental ability an objects apparent mass or size has no bearing on your ability to manipulate it, rather your will and your will alone sets your mind in motion to accomplish any task.
I should hope it would not take too long before I achieve a mind-master status, but it is something I would rather not rush, if only for the massive strain such high level mental training must require.
I don't think I would ever do anything as drastic as changing a planets orbital course, though I have been known to change the path of clouds and bust holes in them for fun.
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Yeah, the joke posts are really killing the forum. Keep it in 9/11 guys.
To really contribute, I must say that I am a big fan of Douglas Hofstadter's works, and I would thoroughly recommend them to anyone interested in cognitive science.
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evolution doesn't phase out things just because they're not useful anymore, and how many emotions could you actually label?
And even the large mass of our brains that scientist label as “spare parts” could have been used for something else.
hahaha
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There is a good section on the neurophysiological reasoning behind fear in Zen and the Brain if you are interested (it is also just a good book in general).
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If anyone here as ever heard something along the lines of humans using only 10% of their brains, this is false. We use a great majority of it, this has been experimented with. That statement started back a little while ago when psychics used it, claiming that they have tapped into the extra 90% to perform their psychic feats. Anyway, yeah the brain is still an enigma in many ways. We've come rather far, but there is still much to be explained. For example, what cause out of body experiences? One good theory is REM intrusions. Anyhow, about the evolution of the brain. Brain volume has increased a good bit in the hominid lineage, about 1 L to be exact. Another interesting thing that is fairly recent is neuroplasticity. For example, it was once thought that the brain was hard-wired around childhood. This is not so, however the adult brain isn't as plastic as a childs, but it is still fairly malleable. The brain is fascinating, and I would like to gain as much insight into it as I can.
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If anyone here as ever heard something along the lines of humans using only 10% of their brains, this is false. We use a great majority of it, this has been experimented with. That statement started back a little while ago when psychics used it, claiming that they have tapped into the extra 90% to perform their psychic feats. Anyway, yeah the brain is still an enigma in many ways. We've come rather far, but there is still much to be explained. For example, what cause out of body experiences? One good theory is REM intrusions. Anyhow, about the evolution of the brain. Brain volume has increased a good bit in the hominid lineage, about 1 L to be exact. Another interesting thing that is fairly recent is neuroplasticity. For example, it was once thought that the brain was hard-wired around childhood. This is not so, however the adult brain isn't as plastic as a childs, but it is still fairly malleable. The brain is fascinating, and I would like to gain as much insight into it as I can.
I believe this comes from the fact that only around 10% of the neurons are firing in any given moment and much more than that is hyperactivity and/or seizure.
Confirm/deny?
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I believe this comes from the fact that only around 10% of the neurons are firing in any given moment and much more than that is hyperactivity and/or seizure.
Confirm/deny?
That sounds good, but there is more than one source. The psychic one is actually another reason i've heard.
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That sounds good, but there is more than one source. The psychic one is actually another reason i've heard.
Oh, I've heard it too. I had read, I think, that the psychic reasoning was sort of a misinterpretation of the fact that only 10% are firing by some new ageists.
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The evolution of the brain? That is a pretty broad subject. Personally, I think that the human brain has evolved to be a "reality simulator." It does not take much brain mass at all for an animal to accomplish mere survival and reproduction. Even the simplest of creatures are capable of amazingly complex movements and behaviors. A domestic house cat can run, hunt, communicate, learn, survive, breed, etc. with a brain the size of a golf ball.
But once the brain grows beyond a certain size, it becomes capable of more than just input and response. It can take previous events, memorize and analyze them, and then form independent predictions and reasonings. At that point, we can imagine situations; take previous information and run a "simulation" of what will, could, or HAS happened. Every time you have taken previously known information and applied it to form an idea about something you DON'T know, you have consciously or unconsciously run a simulation.
That kind of ability is an ENORMOUS evolutionary leg-up. Imagine the first time ancient man thought "I know that sharp rocks can cut meat... and hitting other rocks together can produce sharp rocks... So if I hit some rocks together, I can get some tools for cutting meat!"
:gwa:
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Ah, I heard that the 10% myth rather came from psychology, the idea that only 10% of our mind and memories are conscious, and the rest is unconscious. Some people would have misinterpreted the statement and thought it meant we only use 10% of our brain.
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http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp
Have a nice day.
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http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp
Have a nice day.
busting this myth was the first line in a book on biological psychology book i have
MYTHS, HUH??
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I don't know how the brain evolved but I always wanted to know what being an animal with a very undeveloped nervous system like a jellyfish is like
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That 10% thing is bullshit, just a rumor that started in the 60's so pot smokers could be like "far out man".
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This is an area I am very interested in. It is a fact that the human being only uses 10% of it's brain. This is due largely, I believe, to societal norms and the reality we contruct imposing what we can and cannot do with our minds.
Real life is sort of like the matrix. It is made of rules, some of which can be bent and some can be broken completely. Using 10 % of our brain power is one of these rules. Those that bend the law go on to do great things, people like Michael Jordon and Stephen Hawking. Those that break the law completely go on to do supernatural things, and you don't read much about these people simply because they don't want you to.
The ancients of old understood the power of the mind over the body, and understood that they could do anything they set their minds to. The great sages and practitioners of Magicks in Atlantis became too powerful though, so maybe this imposition of only using 10% of our brain power was somehow set up to prevent us from falling into the same fate as the Atlantians.
Some of us, though, are at the edges of breaking the 10% barrier and unlocking our full mental powers. People like psychics, mindreaders and the such have not yet reached the full potential of the immensley powerful human mind but they are well on their way.
In case you are wondering why I know all of these things, I myself am training to become a user of mentalepathy (a term I coined to describe any use of mental processess to effect the material world). Right now I can focus energy into my hands and feel them heat up, and I have launched a psi-ball before. I have a friend that trains with me and he once did a psi-wave and it knocked me off my feet!
This is a myth.
First, there are no "spare parts", all our brain is in use. And no, we do not "only use 10%" and it is MOST CERTAINLY not a fact... This misconception comes from the fact only 10% is used to THINK. The other 90% is the OS, if you will... It's used in all the automated and voluntary functions that control your extremely complex body.
EDIT: Complimenting a bit from what Omcifer said... The average human's brain volume is at the 1400cc, I believe... Some weird piece of data is that a particular ancestor of us is believed to have had 1600cc.
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EDIT: Complimenting a bit from what Omcifer said... The average human's brain volume is at the 1400cc, I believe... Some weird piece of data is that a particular ancestor of us is believed to have had 1600cc.
This is referring to Neanderthal skull capacity, which is not a direct ancestor of modern humans, but rather a sub species which went extinct. In other words, even though Neanderthals probably had more brain mass than Homo Sapiens, they still died out. I guess size isn't everything.
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This is referring to Neanderthal skull capacity, which is not a direct ancestor of modern humans, but rather a sub species which went extinct. In other words, even though Neanderthals probably had more brain mass than Homo Sapiens, they still died out. I guess size isn't everything.
I thought it was Neanderthals but I wasn't totally sure. And I know they aren't really our ancestors (I was pointing it out exactly to remark that size isn't always everything)
I think one of the dominant theory says Neanderthals couldn't compete with the Homo Sapiens because even though they had a great tool-using capability and learning capacities, they lacked imagination, innovation. And thus they were basically supedited to copying whatever Homo Sapiens did.
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It was the shape of their head that prevented the vast array of enunciations that we are capable of. This limited vocal communication for Neanderthals. Considering that the language "center" of our brain is the seat of our consciousness, and that our language potential was superior to that of the neanderthal, it's not totally surprising that we forced them to extinction.
Consciousness is really just a learned behaviour.
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What a I find "hilarious" about it is that when one studies the brain... it's the brain studying itself.
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We'll regardless of how much we actually use or whatever, our brains are definitely restricted to space and time. Just the way the damned thing works. Can't think of an object without it taking up space nor can we think of an event happening without saying it took such and such time to do. Something like that.
I do agree that there are certain traits we used to possess in the wild needed for survival (like better eyesight) that we lost because we do not live in a life and death environment per se.
Climbtree you have been watching too much dbz.
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This is referring to Neanderthal skull capacity, which is not a direct ancestor of modern humans, but rather a sub species which went extinct. In other words, even though Neanderthals probably had more brain mass than Homo Sapiens, they still died out. I guess size isn't everything.
MASS != SIZE
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Since when is cubic centimeters a measure of mass? It's a measure of volume, thus... Size.
Additionally, while you're probably right about vocalization, I don't think it has anything to do with the ability to innovate and adapt that is what supposedly drove Neanderthals to extinction.
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EDIT: Complimenting a bit from what Omcifer said... The average human's brain volume is at the 1400cc, I believe... Some weird piece of data is that a particular ancestor of us is believed to have had 1600cc.
Haha, yeah I have heard that it was around 1600 at one point, too. Could it have shrinken a little bit? :fogetshrug:
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Ha ha ha. Reading over some of your posts I can tell how ill-informed you all are about the nature of our reality.
Do you really think we look this way? Do you really think when you walk to the fridge and get out a box of Ritz crackers you are really walking?
It is just your mind walking. We are not even here. When I leave a room that room disappears, none of you even exist; this is how the human brain works, and thus we cannot therefore interpret anything about reality until we first escape it's clutches.
I like how you're talking about evolution and history. I have something that will blow your mind:
History. Doesn't. Exist.
We are all just artifacts of a giant cosmic thought and the more you can realise that and sever the connection that you have with useless concepts such as "self" and "I," then the sooner you can start doing some mad stuff.
Unless someone else first interferes, I can control the weather almost entirely. I wouldn't do anything like make a snowstorm in the middle of summer, not that I couldn't I just don't want to.
The key to mind reading is essentially realising that your mind and your opponents mind are one in the same. Sometimes I like to make my enimies go berserk just by controlling their thoughts.
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We had to watch this super-corny movie for this religion class I'm taking, and it was supposed to be like purgatory except purgatory was like this 80's city and you were literally judged, like one person was a procescutor and the other was your defendant and crap - and I'm not sure if they were supposed to be angels or just humans that had reached a higher state of enlightenment. Either way this enlightenment was symbolized by I USE 52% OF MY BRAIN. And each character would successively use 1% more of their brain and for some reason this made a big difference and I guess that person was beyond arguing with because of that extra percent
also I see music
Edit: Actually one time in Philo there was this interesting theory about how schizophrenia is actually a throwback to earlier humans, and the real reason for religion is that at one point the subconscious manifested itself as a separate person or voice which people attributed to God. So for example somebody would have a thought but it would be thought by the subconscious part and it would feel like GOD TOLD ME TO DO IT
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Edit: Actually one time in Philo there was this interesting theory about how schizophrenia is actually a throwback to earlier humans, and the real reason for religion is that at one point the subconscious manifested itself as a separate person or voice which people attributed to God. So for example somebody would have a thought but it would be thought by the subconscious part and it would feel like GOD TOLD ME TO DO IT
I heard about this too. I believe it's called bicameralism, where allegedly one part gives commands to the other part which mindlessly follows while neither are self-aware. Their thoughts would go "I'm hungry" "I must eat" instead of "I'm hungry so I must eat". Supposedly as recent as 3000 years ago everyone was a schizophrenic, which would then explain where there were so many gods, as everyone had their own one.
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3000 years ago... everyone was a schizophrenic? Really? 3000 years ago? If you're going to say something outrageous like that at least have some sort of evidence to back it up. Firstly 3000 years ago is anatomically modern man. 3000 years ago, literature was being written that people still read today. 3000 years ago is the earliest attributation to the writings of Zoroaster upon which modern monotheism is indirectly founded... 3000 years ago is when the Bronze Age ended. This is preposterous. Maybe at the very beginning of the Holocene period some form of what we now call schizophrenia may have been the dominant mode of thought, but seriously... the human brain was pretty much set as it is now by at LEAST 3000 years ago... for gods sake the great pyramids of Giza were built 4500 years ago. Ancient history is much more recent than you think. And the human brain was pretty much completely equipped for most everything that defines modern man by about 3000 BC at the very latest. So unless you meant 3000 BC and not 3000 years ago mannn...
sigh this is why this topic sucks lol
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3000 years ago... everyone was a schizophrenic? Really? 3000 years ago? If you're going to say something outrageous like that at least have some sort of evidence to back it up. Firstly 3000 years ago is anatomically modern man. 3000 years ago, literature was being written that people still read today. 3000 years ago is the earliest attributation to the writings of Zoroaster upon which modern monotheism is indirectly founded... 3000 years ago is when the Bronze Age ended. This is preposterous. Maybe at the very beginning of the Holocene period some form of what we now call schizophrenia may have been the dominant mode of thought, but seriously... the human brain was pretty much set as it is now by at LEAST 3000 years ago... for gods sake the great pyramids of Giza were built 4500 years ago. Ancient history is much more recent than you think. And the human brain was pretty much completely equipped for most everything that defines modern man by about 3000 BC at the very latest. So unless you meant 3000 BC and not 3000 years ago mannn...
sigh this is why this topic sucks lol
Thank you very much, and you're understating it, even...
Cro-Magnons lived from about 40,000 to 10,000 years ago in the Upper Paleolithic period of the Pleistocene epoch. Cro-Magnon were anatomically modern, only differing from their modern day descendants in Europe by their more robust physiology and slightly larger cranial capacity