44f56e78   
   From: green_knight@greenknight.org.uk.invalid   
      
   Gerry Quinn wrote:   
      
   > In article <1irjhg6.yhmxhz4kmmylN%   
   > green_knight@greenknight.org.uk.invalid>,   
   > green_knight@greenknight.org.uk.invalid says...   
   > > David Friedman wrote:   
      
   > > > The last time this question came up I provided a link to a piece that   
   > > > cited a variety of published figures showing a significant positive   
   > > > correlation.   
   > >   
   > > And IIRC, I countered with the paper citing the positive correlation   
   > > between birth rate and stork sightings in Bavaria.   
   >   
   > If storks actually brought babies, that would be expected.  Similarly,   
   > if larger brains evolved because of the advantages of increased   
   > intelligence, one would not be surprised by a correlation between brain   
   > size and proxies for intelligence such as IQ measurements.  Correlation   
   > does not imply causation, but can provide a degree of confirmation.   
      
   So? Same goes for the storks. This is the old 'statistics can prove   
   anything' thing.   
      
      
   > One assumes large brains evolved for a purpose.  Brains are expensive to   
   > run and don't appear to be useful as nutrient stores.  The heat they   
   > generate is largely wasted due to their position in the body.   
   >   
   > Why do YOU think humans might have evolved relatively large brains?  Can   
   > you think of plausible reasons not to do with intelligence?   
      
   I think that what humanity _as a species_ did has little or no relation   
   to brain size in individual humans.   
      
   I do not for one moment believe that humans are any different from other   
   mammals, and I am not aware of anyone claiming a Newfoundland is more   
   intelligent than a Yorkshire terrrier, for all that their brain sizes   
   differ greatly.   
      
   In individual humans, intelligence is a factor not of brain mass, but of   
   connections within the brain, about which we are learning more and more   
   as time goes on - you can have a size XL brain, but if you don't use it,   
   it won't be much use to you. If you *do* use it, and form new   
   connections, and keep feeding it new information, and train it, you will   
   be 'more intelligent' in any number of measures, but your brain will   
   still be the same size.   
      
   There's an old saying that we only use 10% of our brain capacity. This   
   appears to contain a grain of truth; it has been shown that patients who   
   lose the mechanical use of part of their brains can compensate for it by   
   rearranging brain fuction; and there are people whose brains are largely   
   renedered unusable by Hydrocephalus who nonetheless show ordinary   
   intelligence.   
      
   (One of them attended courses at my university.)   
      
      
   Catja   
      
   --   
   writing blog @ http://beyond-elechan.livejournal.com   
      
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