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Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 6:28 am
by Philosophy Explorer
All those neurons. The way it thinks. How it handles information. How it feels. The emotions. Could the brain even evolve more?
PhilX
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 6:10 pm
by clueless
Evolution knows no bounds.
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 6:17 pm
by Philosophy Explorer
clueless wrote:Evolution knows no bounds.
Depends on what you mean by evolution.
PhilX
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 6:24 pm
by Skip
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 7:40 pm
by Hobbes' Choice
What do you mean evolve "more"?
If you mean could brains get more complex, that is not the same as more evolved. Evolution is not a linear heirachical system.
If the pressures of selection favour less intelligence and less complexity then that is the direction of evolution.
There might even be evidence that evolution is not favouring more intelligence as many smart people choose not to have children at all; whereas stupid people might not have the nounce to choose appropriate contraception.
The brain of the Blue Whale is more complex than the human brain, btw.
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 7:44 pm
by Hobbes' Choice
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 8:25 pm
by Skip
Why what?
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 9:28 pm
by Dubious
The development of intelligence may not be fast enough to preempt most of its major side-effect stupidities and contrary to intent, negate itself in the process. The way 'intelligence' operates in humans, it seems forever short changed in catching up to itself.
Intelligence is like a bolus to cure a disease called stupidity only in this case it's going to kill you faster than the disease itself.
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 9:49 pm
by Skip
Maybe we can settle for regarding the human brain as the most complex thing it can hope to understand.
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:32 pm
by Hobbes' Choice
Who are we kidding?
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 4:58 pm
by Dontaskme
Philosophy Explorer wrote:All those neurons. The way it thinks. How it handles information. How it feels. The emotions. Could the brain even evolve more?
PhilX
Brains and neurons have no causal powers. They cause none of our perceptual experiences, and none of our behaviour, says Prof Donald Hoffman the cognitive scientist.
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 12:47 pm
by attofishpi
Hobbes' Choice wrote:
Why?
The Milky Way galaxy is the most complex "object" in the universe known to man.
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 1:49 pm
by Greta
attofishpi wrote:Hobbes' Choice wrote:
Why?
The Milky Way galaxy is the most complex "object" in the universe known to man.
Or maybe Laniakea?
My understanding is that the human brain has the greatest level of complexity in relation to mass.
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 1:57 pm
by Skip
He never said mass. How does Andromeda compare to the flea brain, mass-wise? What are the methods of comparing? And then, too, you'd have to consider mass/volume ratio, or density. No, no, it's just too thorny a problem!
Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 2:32 pm
by Dontaskme
Greta wrote:
My understanding is that the human brain has the greatest level of complexity in relation to mass.
Brains have no consciousness. So nothing in it that could be classified as complex. The word 'complex' is an arbitrary subjective idea.
A brain is like a computer, computers don't have consciousness; a brain made of matter is biological computer, it's a natural computer, not artificial.