THE EMERGENCE OF HOMO SAPIENS.
Somewhere in southern Africa, about 160-180 thousand years ago, another species appeared in the hominid family of a large order of primates, which biologists gave the name Homo sapiens. This species, not distinguished by any physical qualities, as a result of its unusual evolution, became the dominant species on the Planet. The appearance of new species, as well as their disappearance, are ordinary events in the long evolution of living nature, which has been going on for 3.8 billion years. But in this case, a species arose that turned into a person, became the dominant species, affecting the entire ecosystem. In his development, man went beyond the Earth and acquired the ability to destroy all life on Earth with one careless movement.
The uniqueness of the evolution of this species lies in the fact that it began to evolve differently from all other species, adapting to environmental conditions due to morphological changes, i.e. by changing the structure of individual organs. He didn’t grow hair to keep warm in cold climates, he didn’t grow strong claws like those of predators, his legs didn’t become too fast to flee from predators.
As a result of evolutionary development, he acquired a developed language of communication and an advanced mind, which helped him to survive in difficult and hostile conditions. Language and reason, have a common basis, influence each other and determine the direction of evolutionary development.
This evolution of Homo sapiens, evolution through adaptation of behavior, not morphology, has been called human cultural evolution.
The exit from Africa of Homo sapiens and the development of other continents in time is shown on the map:
(http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey)
Homo sapiens originally lived in small hunter-gatherer tribes. Life in tribes requires constant communication. In the presence of a large brain potential, this led to the development of a fairly informative language of communication. Not being endowed with special physical qualities, representatives of the species Homo sapiens were forced to make tools for hunting and everyday life. The genetically determined feature of the brain morphology of this species has created a great potential for the development of the mind. The ancestor's brain of this species has grown 3 times in 2 million years.
Economic activity contributed to the realization of this potential, and the development of reason increased the effectiveness of all activities.
There is a positive feedback (PIC) between the result of work and the increase in intelligence. The mind increases the efficiency of work, and creative work develops the mind. Such positive feedback processes lead to rapid evolution in this direction.
You can read more about the origin and evolution of man in the book by A. Markov (Evolution of man. In 2 books. 2011). This book is based on research in anthropology, genetics, and evolutionary psychology.
We are not interested in genetics, not biological evolution, but in the unique path of human cultural evolution, which made it possible to create civilization.
BRAIN AND MIND.
The ancestral brains of Homo sapiens grew enormously over a relatively short period of evolutionary time. Three million years ago, the volume of the skull of an adult Australopithecus was 400-500 cm3 Two million years later, his supposed descendant, Homo erectus, had a brain with a volume of about 1000 cm3.
Over the next million years, it increased to 900-2000 cm3 in modern Homo sapiens.
But the brain is not yet the mind. Brain architecture and environmental pressures work together to create intelligence.
The most important factor that made human cultural evolution extremely effective is the appearance of sufficient intelligence in Homo sapiens in the course of evolutionary development.
By reason, I, to talk about cultural evolution, I mean:
The ability to build in the brain such models of fragments of the surrounding world that allow predicting some events of reality without performing the experiment itself.
The ancestors of Homo sapiens already had intelligence, it is clearly manifested in the behavior of many species of animals, but its further growth stopped at a certain level, not allowing other species to further advance along the path of cultural evolution.
The new science - infodynamics - deals with the most general regularities in the processes of transmission, transformation, processing and storage of information.
One of the provisions of this science is that consciousness, thoughts, science itself and other results of human mental activity are secondary reality, i.e. approximate models of the real world.
The model cannot coincide with reality 100%, be the same with it from any point of view. It can only be adequate from a certain point of view.
Models describing the same group of phenomena can have different description accuracy and different range of applicability. For example, the laws of electrodynamics formulated by Maxwell are an example of a model that is remarkable and useful under certain conditions. These laws summarize all information about electrical phenomena, but they are interesting among qualified physicists. They will not be useful to a simple electrician, and even more so to the layman, since there are simpler local representations that are a consequence of Maxwell's equations.
The human mind builds models by being attached to its own point of view, to its platform from which a person perceives the world. The point of view is formed by those principles and ways of thinking that a person learned at the initial stage of his life. Model representations that a person carries in himself depend on the motivation (orientation) of his mind.
If in childhood you were inspired with the idea of the divine creation of the world, then theological thinking forces you to look at the world from this point of view, where everything is arranged according to the will of the creator, where you cannot doubt the basic principles, you need to explain all phenomena so that they fit into the framework accepted dogmas. Then there is almost no freedom of choice for you. They have already chosen for you. Your mind is motivated in a certain way. Therefore, the religious fanatic and the scientist see the world differently.
THE RATIO OF THE BRAIN AND MIND.
The brain is an environment built by genetics from specialized cells called neurons. The brain can perform a number of functions: it collects information about the external environment from the sense organs, from nerve cells about the internal environment, processes information, remembers and, depending on the results, controls behavior.
The brain is able to store processed information for some time. The brain of a newborn already possesses some “Reason” in the sense that information processing programs are already operating in it. But these are programs innate "wired" into it. This is the original firmware of the brain, which is not available to us and therefore, it is incorrect to call it the mind.
Part of the brain is dedicated to the mind. The functions of this part are called consciousness, because we are aware of the nature of the information in consciousness.
The functions performed by the brain are realized by changing the functional states of its individual fragments (local neural networks), just as in a computer only the contents (states) of certain cells change during operation.
The mind does not directly depend on the size of the brain. So an elephant with a huge brain has a mind much smaller than a human. His brain is not adapted to learning as much as the human brain. We can say that the architecture of the elephant's brain does not allow organizing an effective mind.
We are aware and control only the information that is in consciousness. In the brain, apart from consciousness, there is a space called by S. Freud subconsciousness and unconsciousness. The differences are that the programs of the unconscious are formed earlier, while the subconscious is formed in the processes of upbringing and education.
The subconscious and the unconscious contain and operate with information that is inaccessible to consciousness, but plays an equally important role, performing the functions of automatic (without the participation of the mind) control of individual body functions.
In addition, the unconscious interacts with consciousness, motivates it. Consciousness controls behavior taking into account the already formed unconscious and subconscious.
ACGUISITION OF REASON.
Although part of the brain is allocated for the mind, it is not there initially. The mind is created in the processes of adaptive self-organization. These processes are influenced by innate instincts (unconscious), the environment in which a person lives, the processes of education and upbringing that form the subconscious. For the development of the mind, the processes of education and training must correspond to innate properties, otherwise they will be ineffective.
The brain can be compared to a computer. Without programs, a computer is useless. The operating system and suite of utilities are installed under the control of professional programmers. Other programs are installed by the user himself according to his needs. Self-installed programs must be compatible with the operating system.
Reason can be considered a semblance of custom programs with adaptive capabilities. But the mind is not created by programmers (teachers and educators), but arises in the processes of self-organization. Teachers and educators are only helpers in these processes. They should be considered as an external environment in which the mind and subconscious are formed. Education and upbringing are effectively perceived by the body at certain stages of its development. The social environment is essential for the formation of the mind and subconscious.
The formation of the mind takes place in the process of self-organization in a certain social environment.
Some unreasonably believe that the human mind is an innate entity that distinguishes it from other primates. But this is not the case.
There are known examples when a person who grew up in a flock of animals (Mowgli) remains at the same level of development as other representatives of the flock. It is no longer possible to train him to become a full-fledged person, since the right time has been missed.
It is also known that no matter how much you educate the monkey, it can become very smart, but it will not be able to reach the average human mind.
This means that not the mind itself, but the ability to develop is an innate, genetically given property. Ability should be viewed as a window that opens at a specific time period. Whether a person uses this window depends on the person's environment.
In biological evolution, genes in most cases create a kind of predisposition, but do not rigidly determine the processes.
If we do not take into account the environmental factors, their effect on the development processes in living organisms, then we slide towards genetic determinism, if we ignore the organizing principle of genes, then we take the position of the notorious T. Lysenko. These extremes should be avoided.
Human beings are genetically different from other primates in their ability to develop their minds. Mind is a genetic potential that is timely realized in a person at certain stages of his development. Realizing the potential is a matter of education and upbringing.
The ability to develop the mind distinguishes humans not only from monkeys, but also within human populations, these abilities differ greatly. Representatives of biological species have varying degrees of severity of different characters. It is this variability of characters that makes it possible for selection to work. The remark also applies to reason, which is subject to social selection in a social society. The variability of species according to different characteristics was discovered by Charles Darwin, in this case variability is the difference between people in terms of the capabilities of the brain for functional development.
Real progress comes from those people whose minds are above average. It is possible without a big mistake to assume that there is a threshold value of the mind at which effective innovation is possible. To create conditions for work in science, for a person incapable of it, who does not reach the threshold, is a waste of money. A person is born with some potential for the development of reason, but whether it will be realized in life depends on many circumstances.
In the development of the mind, the role of upbringing and education is very great, but not unlimited. The innate genetic programs of the unconscious (instincts) and the learned programs of the subconscious do not allow all information to be absorbed by the brain. Hence, it is clear that the order in which the material for training is presented is important. What set of material will be learned earlier will become the censor for subsequent assimilation.
Inborn instincts are formed at the earliest stages of ontogenesis. Therefore, the brain of a newborn is not an empty vessel that can be filled with anything. He assimilates something and rejects something that does not take root there.
Information is not copied to the brain. External information signals lead to the reconstruction of information in the brain in the form of functional states of local neural networks. If you still call this process copying, then copying is approximate. Some signals may not be recreated in the recipient's head, and some recreated may not take root in the brain, displaced by other information.
Everyone has come across this. The authority of the teacher in the eyes of the student increases the degree of assimilation.
It must be remembered that the processes of upbringing and education consist in creating favorable conditions for the student and nothing more. You can only learn something yourself. Reason cannot be bought for money, you have to work on it yourself. Money can only buy "crusts".
Today's level of intelligence was formed as a result of co-evolution. Biological evolution has created the morphology of the human brain, adapted to significant functional development, filled it with some initial content. Cultural evolution realizes the development opportunities inherent in genetics with the help of social institutions.
If in the process of ontogenesis a brain is created that is not capable of development, then training and upbringing will not be able to correct this deficiency, but they can, apparently, to a greater or lesser extent, make it less noticeable (mask). However, not capable of developing in one direction, the brain can be very suitable for developing in another.
What can you compare with? Apparently with a processor, inside of which a number of connections between the elements are missing or they themselves are of poor quality as a result of a technology violation. Therefore, a computer with such a processor will not work as it should. But it may turn out that he can solve some problems quite successfully.
Based on the above, we can conclude:
Mind is an acquired function of the brain. Therefore, like any acquired property, the mind, according to the concepts of genetics, is not inherited. Only the brain is inherited, its general structure, like the structure of other organs.
Smart dads and moms don't necessarily have smart kids. As for geniuses, according to the signs "Nature often rests on their children." This observation corresponds to the ideas of genetics about the peculiarities of the inheritance of properties in the sexual reproduction process. Sex cells that program hereditary traits are formed in a stochastic process (meiosis). This is a real lottery. A bomb does not hit the same funnel twice, and geniuses are not born one after another from a pair of the same parents. This is a piece goods. But all children of the same parents can be talented to varying degrees.
In the Bach family, many generations were musicians, but the brilliant Sebastian Bach had to learn music, like everyone else. He may owe his greatness to his unique genotype. But this is not enough if he himself did not make sufficient efforts to achieve the goal.
The shortcomings of upbringing and education, guiding the process of personality formation at a young age, appear later and are difficult or impossible to correct in the future. The emergence of a correctly oriented mind, as well as the child's assimilation of certain rules of behavior in society, largely depends on the culture of family relations.
Proper upbringing and education depends on many social institutions operating in society, on the well-being of the social society itself.
IQ.
Various tests are used to numerically assess the mind. Intelligence quotient (IQ - intelligence quotient, read "aykyu") is a quantitative assessment of a person's intelligence level (IQ). One of the most famous tests for its determination is Eysenck's test. Studies have shown that both genetics and the environment affect this indicator. Human races have some genetic differences in this criterion. Asian countries have the highest IQ values: Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, China). Russia and America were in their fifties.
Above before the article is a drawing from the book "IQ and the Wealth of Nations" - a book published in London in 2000. The authors of the book are Dr. Richard Lynn and Dr. Tatu Vanhanen.
Considering the above map, we notice that the most intelligent creature Homo sapiens came from Africa, the continent with the lowest level of intelligence today. Coming out of there, it "grew wiser", evolving in the vastness of Europe and Asia.
MOTIVATION OF THE MIND.
Everything that a person perceives from the real world with the help of his senses is reflected in the brain in the form of virtual reality.
An important property of the mind is its orientation. It depends on the social environment in which the mind was formed. The mind can be oriented towards good deeds, unkind or useless. Hence the expression "evil genius". Therefore, it is not enough to characterize a person with the epithet "Smart".
There are many “evil” intelligent personalities in history. Evil in the sense that their minds were directed against the entire society or some part of it.