[www.keralites.net] The cost of the brain--is it too much for evolution?

 

The Cost of the Brain---is it too much for evolution? "At the same time, other evolutionary problems were starting to catch up with the apes. They were getting too big, too slow breeding, and---paradoxically too intelligent for their own good." "At first sight, it would seem that intelligence is a good thing and animals could never have too much of it. BUT BRAINS ARE VERY EXPENSIVE TO RUN.THE HUMAN BRAIN SEETHES WITH THE ACTIVITY OF BILLIONS OF TIGHTLY PACKED NERVE CELLS, WHICH ARE CONSTANTLY HUNGRY AND, ASTONISHINGLY PERHAPS, USE UP ENERGY AS FAST AS DO HARD-WORKING MUSCLES. So energy sapping is the human brain that although it accounts for only about a fiftieth of the body's weight, it burns up about a fifth of the oxygen taken in by the lungs. Being conscious is actually very hard work." "The expense of the brain is an important point. Once we appreciate that our brains are burning up so much of our energy to create consciousness, the common assumption that the mind is somehow effortlessly produced is destroyed and it becomes easier to accept that the mind is not some ghastly resident in the head. WE ARE ALSO MADE TO REALIZE HOW DIFFICULT IT MUST HAVE BEEN FOR EVOLUTION TO JUSTIFY GIVING US SUCH A HUNGRY ORGAN. Evolution could never afford to waste energy on human intellect unless it paid off on the bottom line---success at breeding---which it obviously did." "For the apes emerging from the Miocene, the size of their brains was, however getting to be a problem. With the apes lush forests rapidly disappearing, a big brain could become more a millstone than an advantage. Several whole Miocene families quickly vanished. And today, four of the five surviving lines are verging on extinction. The pygmy chimpanzee and mountain gorilla of the African rain forests number only in hundreds, while the lowland gorilla, orang-utan, and gibbon species all number in tens of thousands. Even the common chimp which numbers about 1, 80, 000, has barely enough members to populate the suburb of a human city."(The Ape that Spoke by John Mccrone, pages17 and 18). Is the entire ape family, including the human ape on the verge of extinction? The brain is a very hungry organ. But it needs good nutritious food, not junk non-food, pizzas, burghers, biscuits, sweets---all totally non-nutritious junk called food. Matching this starvation, the human ape has surrendered all its organs to the machines. When there is a problem, it runs for new machines or new technology. Gone are the days when the human being actually thought using its brain and did not resort to technology. These are the days of cybernetics or artificial intelligence which is bound to the mechanized and programmed algorithms. Are we machines? If we are machines, then God must be substituting us to the real machines instead of the human pretenders who want to surrender to machines. When we are employing more and more technology, are we not condemning our own organs to disuse? After all it is conscious notice that converts waves into particles. Can junk food fed brain notice as per the needs of the evolution? Simply put are we to achieve the ultimate enlightenment by yoga, concentration, meditation etc? Or are we to junk our brains and be happy at the elegant Strings Theory, or the Loops Quantum Gravity Theory, given to us by cybernetics?

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Posted by: Cool Kis <cooolkis@gmail.com>

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