Re: Feral children,

From: Kenneth Van Oost (Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be)
Date: Wed Nov 21 2001 - 16:22:37 GMT

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From: "Kenneth Van Oost" <Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
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Subject: Re: Feral children,
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 17:22:37 +0100
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    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Philip A.E. Jonkers <phae@uclink.berkeley.edu>
    To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2001 3:23 AM
    Subject: Re: Feral children,

    > On Tuesday 20 November 2001 12:50 pm, you wrote:
    > > Hi all,
    > >
    > > In my post to Philip I made a mistake,
    > >
    > > I wrote,
    > > your brain already made connections which in a sense can be undone,
    > > that of course has to be,
    > >
    > > can 't be undone...
    >
    > Gotcha... there are probably a lot of them but are 33,000 genes really
    enough
    > to program something as complex as consciousness, empathy or reasoning
    > a priori, i.e. before interaction with other humans. I think it's all in
    > memes (-> software): they fill in the mental blanks the genes (->
    hardware)
    > have left for them.

    << The genes are not important, the connections between them are, of course.
    But once any connection is made it can 't be undone.
    Think of this in the way we use a muscle. The brain exerts in the same way
    its connections, the more you use one particular connection the stronger
    it will get, new ones will be made if needed, old ones will be restored if
    necessary, and other ones will adapt. ( Think here in terms of the analogy
    made by Wilkins ( Geological landscape).

    But that doesn 't mean that if you use your brain more often, more connec-
    tions are made, that you are smarter !!
    Although mush can be said about those with mush lesser connections...
    but that is entirely another discussion.

    regards,

    Kenneth

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