Chapter 2: The Mind in the Machine

This chapter seemed to be mostly about the progress to date in the field of computers and implants.

• Introduction
• Lots of advances in the last 50 years.
• Learning network codes
• cochlear implant
• neural filters
• Brain Circuits vs. Computer Circuits
• Brains can learn, computers must be programmed.
• Making a brain larger gives it new abilities
• Making a computer with more memory or a faster processor does not result in new abilities.
• Brains always occur with an accompanying body.
• Human body is able to interact with human beings, etc.
• Computers still have a huge amount of trouble interacting
• Data in brains is about connections and sequence, memory in computers has no associations of this kind.
• Building an AI helps you understand how human cognition works.
• The Brain of John Von Neumann
• Background
• A true renaissance man
• Worked on the Manhattan Project
• Pioneer in the realm of computer science
• Computers (generally) work on serial data and instruction streams.
• The brain works in parallel.
• Point to point vs. associative brain systems
• Point to point: 
• touch, vision, motor system 
• If two points are physically near each other, then the corresponding neurons will have a similar physical relationship
• Associative
• Smell, taste and to some extent hearing
• Take unrelated stimula and relate them 
• Smell #1 = food source
• Smell #2 = predator
• No spatial relationship between sensations

Questions About the Book

I had many questions when I read the book.  One of the reasons for creating this blog is to see if anyone out there would care to speculate or answer some of them:

Anthropology questions

• Is the Boskop find credible?
• How have past civilizations been influenced by the average intelligence of their members?
• What caused previous civilizations to fail?
• How have past civilizations treated exceptionally intelligent members?

Psychology

• How does brain size correlate with intelligence?
• What is the most striking aspect of human beings with larger than average brains?
• Does having a large brain predispose or inure a person from mental disorders?

Medicine/Biology

• Does having a large brain cost more in terms of energy needs for the organism?
• (verification) Is the infant mortality/maternal death rate of human beings higher than in other primates?
• (verification) Did standing upright allow human beings to have larger babies?
• (verification) Do human females, compared to other primates, have wider hips?
• (verification) Does having wider hips make the birthing process safer for both mother and child?
• Why does a child's head have to be large at birth in order to have a large brain later on? Why can't a child be born with a smaller head or body and just grow larger?

Notes on Chapter 1: Big Brains, Bigger Brains

The book starts and ends with discussions about a race or subgroup of humanity that died out 10,000 to 50,000 years ago and that had a brain that was 20% to 60% larger than modern humans.  This is a controversial claim.

 John Hawks has a number of postings that criticize the book. He states that

• The notion of a Boskop race has not been a topic for 50 years.
• The size of the Boskop skull is a fluke, not a race.

He quotes a paper by Ronald Singer from 1958:

It is not obvious that what was justifiable speculation (because of paucity of data) in 1923, and was apparent as speculation in 1947, is inexcusable to maintain in 1958.

He goes on to state that by 1963, D.R. Brothwell could claim that Boskop itself was nothing more than a large skull of Khoisan type, leaving the concept of a "Boskop race" far behind.

He basically states that the Boskop skull is large, but compared with the upper end of the average size of Homo Sapiens brain (1600ml), the Boskop's additional 2000ml is not that large.

Chapter 1: Big Brains, Bigger Brains

• Boskop 
• Possible offshoot of the human race with larger brains than modern humans.
• Named for Boskop, South Africa where they were found.
• While notable at the time, the find has largely been forgotten.
• Are Bigger Brains Better?
• Yes, bigger brains make for a more intelligent animal.
• Brain and Language
• Language is very important
• Uniquely human
• Allows for the transmission of knowledge between generation
• Each generation does not start from scratch.
• Were Boskops smarter?
• Probably
• Why Haven't we Heard of Boskops Before?
• Prejudices - the belief that because we modern humans have some trait then it must be advantageous.
• There is precedence for this: Liebnitz's notation, particle vs. wave theory of light.
• Outline of the book

1. Introduction
2. Brain circuits
3. Genetics
4. Brain structures
5. The neocortex
6. Olfaction and cognition
7. Parts of the brain and what they do
8. How do you get from simple biological machinery to thought
9. Brain differences in humans
10. Species and subspecies
11. Primate and hominid ancestors
12. The Piltdown find
13. Differences in primate brains
14. Speculation about the Boskop

Notes on the Book

While I find the ideas behind the book interesting, trying to get to them can be challenging.  To help myself understand the main points, I have created a summary of what I got out of the book's chapters.

If you took away something different from a chapter, or have some insight into how factual a particular point is, please feel free to chime in.