Evolution of the Brain

I hope to turn this ramble into a thread that you will find interesting.

Intelligence is very roughly correlatable with brain size.

As humans evolved, brain size increased dramatically. We can see at a glance in the image the increase in brain size and shape over 3.5 million years.

The A. afarensis skull at top left is approximately 400 cc, about the same size as a chimp's brain. The million-year old Homo erectus skull in the center is 1200 cc, and the modern human skull at right holds a brain of 1400 cc. The shape of the homind skull changes dramatically as well, to accommodate the development of a forebrain. Note that A. afarensis on the left, one of the earliest hominid species, has almost no forehead at all.

While I have no clue, just by looking at the images and the brain sizes listed, how large would you estimate an alien's brain to be? Just for fun, lets carry on, it will be useful later.

I believe our oldest skull here is around 2 million years old. Again, how long would you estimate the skull and brain size to change from our current size, to that of our estimated alien brain size? This would give us a rough judgement of how far behind we are with them. Maybe....

I found this interesting. I think you will too.

Surprisingly, a big brain is not an obvious evolutionary advantage--at least not immediately. For example, a large brain requires an inordinate amount of care and feeding--a diet high in protein--and exquisite temperature control in order to function properly.

Increases in brain size would therefore drive changes in early human diets, because of the need to increase the intake of protein. While human species remained ominivorous, a preference for meat-eating did in fact occur over time.

About 25% of our metabolism is devoted to brain function, which represents a huge investment of energy--and therefore a huge risk in terms of the overall chances for survival of the species. Overheating the large human brain in the hot climate of east Africa was potentially fatal.

Could these items factor into alien life?

Could it be that they could never survive here because of this?

Could they have been alive at one point and become extint because of diet issues etc (not on earth) Again, all in fun...

Source

Is it a gene giving us larger brains?

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have identified a gene that appears to have played a role in the expansion of the human brain's cerebral cortex -- a hallmark of the evolution of humans from other primates.

More in the article

More brain evolution links
www.onelife.com...
www.wellcome.ac.uk...
serendip.brynmawr.edu...


Could evolution of the brain answer some questions about our thoughts of alien life?

What about other physical chracteristics of the alien body? Can we learn anything from them?

The answer is of course, if we know what they look like truthfuly.

To take this thread anywhere, we just have to guess ! Have some fun with it.

Maybe the brains ARE the aliens, the parasitic bastards

The aliens have large heads and small bodies, so the energy consumption of their brain probably has something to do with that.

I wonder why they dont end up as flying heads without a body.

from what i understand the greys have a developed a third lobe that carrys all of their telepathic signals, given that their other two lobes might not differentiate all that much from ours, the glimps i got while abducted for about 10 seconds was that the main third frontal lobe makes up a substantial portion of their brain it just pushes their other two lobds back more and the humanoid that was with them seemed about their height and with a normal sized brain, so they are probably just bigger and slightly more evolved. (drew a pic of my encounter though ill spare you the degradation it turned out rather crude)

I remember reading somewhere(cant find where), that if brains reach a certain size they suffer from a loss of functionality,so bigger is only better up to a certain point.
Brain size in animals is also relative to there bodys so that play a factor too, I think that a more advanced brain than our would be bigger but not overly big, lets face it these so-called greys must suffer from lower back problems

In my opinion the structure of the brain would play a bigger part than size although size would play a role too.Our brains are about 1400cc where as neanderthal mans brain was about 1500cc does this mean they were smarter than us funky homosapians?Probally not because were the ones still here.

As for large brain being risky evolutionary move, its true we need alot of juice to keep them ticking over, but the brain itself helps us with that. There may be a sort of risky peroid when intelligence first emerges until the animal in question adapts to fully use its potential, the discovery of agriculture was probally when we left this risky peroid.If you look at the below artical you'll see that about 5800 years ago the ASPM varient a gene related to brain size croped up in our genetic code, around the time the first writing ,agriculture and mabye even language.

www.betterhumans.com...

thats what i was thinking plop but then i realized that they wouldnt be able to do anything... with out bodies of course mabye they could have tentecles or something to help them. its all the ways evolution plays out. i heard squids are pretty smart at problem solving if our oceans were given more care and sea life given more respect then perhaps they would be rivaling us at this point in evolutionary design, them and dolphins. just think how we could engineer things given 8 tenticles to work with

Evolution is a slippery topic. Since it is not an exact science, meaning it has not yet fit into the scientific method (observation and verification followed by reproduction), most theories remain just that. Add to that the mysteries about brain function and the picture becomes even less clear.

I had followed this thought through in the past and ended up reaching my own conclusion.

After reading the novel Ishmael, a new vision of evolution and what it may really be entered my train of thought on E.T.'s. According to this book (Great read, I would highly recommend it. It's authored by Daniel Quinn), Humans may have reached our evolutionary 'peak'. This is supported by the fact that we very rarely need to adapt any further. Through our technology, we have begun to solve the uncomfortable conditions and situations which have led to our evolution in the past. The major theme is that human beings have ceased to live in the natural world, and thusare not reaping its benefits any more.

While I agree with this somewhat, there are some inconsistancies. My own conclusion is that brain size is not the be all and end all of intelligence. Brain functionality may not be as dependant on size as we all assume. The gray's do look strikingly similar to what we would project our future selves to look like.

Imagine if time travel tech. was invented sometime in the future. In my culture, any new tech is only truly viable if it can be commercialized and turn a profit in the capitalistic economic model.

If I was the one to have control over this tech. I would first look to the travel industry and begin to take people to historic times to witness world-changing events.

This theory looks like it fits the 'big picture'. The secrecy of the government can be easily explained as a non-factor, since it looks like they are aware of this future tech and are being patient. Places where you would expect E.T.'s or UFO's to pop up under this line of thought are covered.

Biblical times, probably a major destination, ancient Egypt is there, the first moon landing, the atomic bomb. I am sure research would reveal even more turning points in history which also are accompanied by an increase in UFO activity.

From abductions, we get a discription of the E.T.'s. And they look a lot like an evolved form of us. More evidence of our own future, coming back in time on 'trips' to the past. The reason for abductions could be for many purposes that may be scientifically important in the future.

Originally posted by sturod84
thats what i was thinking plop but then i realized that they wouldnt be able to do anything... with out bodies of course mabye they could have tentecles or something to help them. its all the ways evolution plays out. i heard squids are pretty smart at problem solving if our oceans were given more care and sea life given more respect then perhaps they would be rivaling us at this point in evolutionary design, them and dolphins. just think how we could engineer things given 8 tenticles to work with

Something that is often reported with aliens is their telepathic or even telekinetic abilities. With telepathy they would still need legs and arms, but with telekinesis maybe not.

In the Kelly Cahill case the aliens were seen hovering above the ground and gliding towards ppl over a field.



This guy also saw aliens floating towards him, and once he goes onboard their ship(or whatever it is) he can move things around with his own mind:


video: play.rbn.com.../usanet/g2demand/scifi/diaries/sandy_80k.rm&proto=rtsp

But if this is all true, then a more evolved alien (which has complete control over such things) wouldnt need a body anymore at all. U would end up with a ghost. This is also what later happened in the Cahill case.

[edit on 2-10-2005 by plop]

Originally posted by Dulcimer

Intelligence is very roughly correlatable with brain size.

As humans evolved, brain size increased dramatically. We can see at a glance in the image the increase in brain size and shape over 3.5 million years.

The A. afarensis skull at top left is approximately 400 cc, about the same size as a chimp's brain. The million-year old Homo erectus skull in the center is 1200 cc, and the modern human skull at right holds a brain of 1400 cc. The shape of the homind skull changes dramatically as well, to accommodate the development of a forebrain. Note that A. afarensis on the left, one of the earliest hominid species, has almost no forehead at all.

While I have no clue, just by looking at the images and the brain sizes listed, how large would you estimate an alien's brain to be? Just for fun, lets carry on, it will be useful later.

......

What about other physical chracteristics of the alien body? Can we learn anything from them?

Take a look at the video linked below. Who knew a defect could do this to a kid.

Link

Intelligence is very roughly correlatable with brain size? Well, looks like this person will be ruler of the world when he gets older. lol, he will know what your going to do before you do it. Just kidding.. I wouldn't think his BRAIN is THAT MASSIVE (and healthy) just because his head is.

For people that do not want to watch video clip

Another thing I was thinking, (straying away from the brain topic, but anways..) what about the hands?

Our hands have changed greatly from something like a chimp. Why would the aliens need hands like they have? (the abnormal long fingers)

Why the eyes? Why the oblong bug eyes? And the color?

Again, we have to go by concepts of what we think they look like.

Just for fun. This isnt exact science !

Merkeva made a good point about brain / head size compared to body size. There body structure would alone pose great problems for them.

My dad watches that News Channel practically everyday, his head is that big because he has too much cranial fluid building up in it. Pretty much the same effect as if you were to bang your head pretty hard on say concrete and the next day you wake up with a large soft bump.

As much as I know there is a very biological reason for human beings not to get bigger heads (... brains): If the brain would be any larger (say 25%), it would be impossible for women to give birth to their babies the natural way - the babys head would'nt fit in the birth channel. Because when a baby is born, all the cells of it's brain it will ever have (even as a grown up) are already there, there is no growing of the brain any further. (though I have to admit the rest of the head is growing a little bit later on) So maybe a cesarian would be a solution for this problem, but I don't think it's a real evolutionary way. Another solution would be of course fertilization in vitro, so maybe if humans want to have larger brains and maybe more intelligence, they have to sacrify sex for it. I think it will all come hand in hand with genetic engineering, because a larger head would also be heavier, which means you also have to modify the bones and muscles which support the skull.
I'm pretty sure a lot of scientists working on exactly this topic today, so I wish us all a happy freaky future!