Neuroplasticity

[jeremyp]

A brain is an important platform but just one component among others, involved in mental processes.

 

What other components and what evidence do you have that such components exist?

[torridon]

The article I have quoted above clearly states that whatever variation the system wants it elicits from the gene. Genes only contain 'data' that are made available when the system wants it.  There is an active system (phenotypic plasticity) of responding to the environment and providing what is required. The system is not chance driven...it is intelligently responsive.

It is not about 'random' variations that just happen to be available at any point of time.

The 'random' bit refers to genetic mutations that have accrued through generations of a lineage that resulted in an organism being as it is today. It is not referring to the general functioning of the organism or any of its subsystems at any level.  Even the 'random' genetic mutations may not be truly random, more likely they are stochastic in nature.

I think you confuse complexity with intelligence. We might describe a system as intelligent because it is complex and it adheres to underlying laws so it might seem that it is behaving in a way it was 'designed' to behave. I think that is a non sequitur because living systems evolve through a random (or stochastic) history of events that lead to their complexity.  It is easy to mistake the seeming design of complex systems for actual design, ie actually designed by a being with human-like intentions and desires. This is superfluous since we have no evidence for an absent intelligent designer, and all the evidence we do in fact have merely substantiates how complex systems arise to be consistent with underlying laws of laws of nature and principles of logic.

[Sriram]

What other components and what evidence do you have that such components exist?

Well...there is the endocrine system for instance that generates most of our emotions. Also our instinctive responses generated from the genes. 

The mind is generated through various means...though it is possible that the brain is used as a central platform in these cases also. There is also the 'second' brain (enteric nervous system) centered around the stomach which has a major role in our mental processes.

Secondly, it is to be noted that some people have survived and even lived near normal lives almost without a brain.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.3679117/scientists-research-man-missing-90-of-his-brain-who-leads-a-normal-life-1.3679125

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When a 44-year-old man from France started experiencing weakness in his leg, he went to the hospital. That's when doctors told him he was missing most of his brain. The man's skull was full of liquid, with just a thin layer of brain tissue left. The condition is known as hydrocephalus.

"He was living a normal life. He has a family. He works. His IQ was tested at the time of his complaint. This came out to be 84, which is slightly below the normal range … So, this person is not bright — but perfectly, socially apt," explains Axel Cleeremans.

Cleeremans is a cognitive psychologist at the Université Libre in Brussels. When he learned about the case, which was first described in The Lancet in 2007, he saw a medical miracle — but also a major challenge to theories about consciousness.

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[Sriram]

The 'random' bit refers to genetic mutations that have accrued through generations of a lineage that resulted in an organism being as it is today. It is not referring to the general functioning of the organism or any of its subsystems at any level.  Even the 'random' genetic mutations may not be truly random, more likely they are stochastic in nature.

I think you confuse complexity with intelligence. We might describe a system as intelligent because it is complex and it adheres to underlying laws so it might seem that it is behaving in a way it was 'designed' to behave. I think that is a non sequitur because living systems evolve through a random (or stochastic) history of events that lead to their complexity.  It is easy to mistake the seeming design of complex systems for actual design, ie actually designed by a being with human-like intentions and desires. This is superfluous since we have no evidence for an absent intelligent designer, and all the evidence we do in fact have merely substantiates how complex systems arise to be consistent with underlying laws of laws of nature and principles of logic.

You keep confusing the idea of an intelligent system with the idea of an external intelligent entity (God) who does things miraculously. That is not what I am talking about (though that could still be a possibility).

I am talking about intelligent systems that can regulate themselves and respond actively to changes in the environment.  Chance and random variations are clearly not responsible for phenotypic changes. This is seen in plasticity. 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/phenotypic-plasticity

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Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to change in response to stimuli or inputs from the environment.

Even though the phenotype is defined here to exclude the genome, in fact phenotypic plasticity always involves a change in gene expression or gene-product use (morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits always being products, in part, of gene expression).

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[Stranger]

You keep confusing the idea of an intelligent system with the idea of an external intelligent entity (God) who does things miraculously. That is not what I am talking about (though that could still be a possibility).

It's you who are confused here. Nobody is suggesting the systems that respond is quickly to change (neuroplasticity or phenotypic plasticity) are doing so randomly. The point is that those system came about (or were 'designed') not by intelligence but by the process of evolution.

There is no actual intelligent input needed for a system to come about (by evolution) and react in a way in which you have labelled 'intelligent'. The 'design', or appearance of design, is fully explained by evolution.

Do you get it now? Evolution (variation with selection) produces traits like phenotypic plasticity, that can then react to changes in the environment (because that ability is a survival advantage).