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| It's a no-brainer |
I. Background
Some time back (about a decade ago) Dredd Blog considered the reason or reasons for the changing of human skull sizes in some parts of the world:
"A paper and presentation was recently given which documented the change in shape and size of the skulls of certain Caucasian Americans:
"The American population has experienced remarkable change in cranial morphology. Some of these have already been documented, but this paper expands on previous results by increasing the time frame, sample sizes and attempting to identify points in time when change begins, or proceeds most rapidly, which in turn may provide clues to reasons for the changes."
(The Skulls They Are A Changin',cf. The Remarkable Change in Euro-American Cranial Shape and Size). The changing of the brain that makes it larger is one suspect in this phenomenon, but it has not been properly considered:
"The researchers cannot pinpoint a reason why American head shapes are changing and whether it is primarily due to evolution or lifestyle changes."
(Research Shows That American Heads Are Getting Larger). Thus, the Dredd Blog hypothesis cannot be ruled out.
Which means that the changing of thinking, and/or storage of thoughts, and/or storage of what makes up thoughts (circuits) could enlarge the brain which could in turn change the cranium/skull:
"Previous posts in this series have argued that our culture, our social environment, literally changes our brains physically.
This is supported by research going back some years:
"Probably 98 percent of your reasoning is unconscious - what your brain is doing behind the scenes. Reason is inherently emotional. You can't even choose a goal, much less form a plan and carry it out, without a sense that it will satisfy you, not disgust you. Fear and anxiety will affect your plans and your actions. You act differently, and plan differently, out of hope and joy than out of fear and anxiety.
Thought is physical. Learning requires a physical brain change: Receptors for neurotransmitters change at the synapses, which changes neural circuitry. Since thinking is the activation of such circuitry, somewhat different thinking requires a somewhat different brain. Brains change as you use them-even unconsciously. It's as if your car changed as you drove it, say from a stick shift gradually to an automatic."
"Beyond such internal mechanisms of variation, environment-driven plasticity lends yet another layer of complexity to the brain. The brain is capable of remarkable remodeling in response to experience. Signals originating from the environment can cause both widespread and localized adaptations. At the level of individual cells, structure and function are continually changing with the environment in a dance of lifelong brain plasticity, and some experiences, such as stress or physical exercise, affect the growth, survival, and fate of newborn neurons in neurogenic regions of the brain.
...
Traditionally, cells are defined by the tissue to which they belong as well as their particular functional role or morphology. This classification represents a developmental trajectory that begins early in embryogenesis and is hardwired into each cell. But other differences among cells are more subtle. Multi-dimensional analyses of gene expression and other metrics have revealed remarkable heterogeneity among cells of the same traditional “type.” Cells exist in different degrees of maturation, activation,plasticity, and morphology. Once we begin to consider all of the subtle cell-to-cell variations, it becomes clear that the number of cell types is much greater than ever imagined. In fact, it may be more appropriate to place some cells along a continuum rather than into categories at all.
...
Brain cells in particular may be as unique as the people to which they belong. This genetic, molecular, and morphological diversity of the brain leads to functional variation that is likely necessary for the higher-order cognitive processes that are unique to humans. Such mosaicism may have a dark side, however. Although neuronal diversification is normal, it is possible that there is an optimal extent of diversity for brain function and that anything outside those bounds—too low or too high—may be pathological. For example, if neurons fail to function optimally in their particular role or environment, deficits could arise. Similarly, if neurons diversify and become too specialized to a given role, they may lose the plasticity required to change and function normally within a larger circuit. As researchers continue to probe the enormous complexity of the brain at the single-cell level, they will likely begin to uncover the answers to these questions—as well as those we haven’t even thought to ask yet."
(Advancing Techniques Reveal the Brain’s Impressive Diversity, emphasis added). Our human brains are constantly being physically molded and modified by the external cultural environment around us.
(Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 5). Are you with me yet ? ... I mean isn't it a "no-brainer" that if the brain expands then its containment entity must also change in order to accommodate it (On The Origin of The Containment Entity - 7)?
I won't go into the cultural amygdala here today, but keep in mind that the events that cause these cognitive changes are not directed at you personally, they happen to you because you are a part of a crowd:
"It is the purpose of this book to explain the structure of the mechanism which controls the public mind, and to tell how it is manipulated by the special pleader who seeks to create public acceptance for a particular idea or commodity. It will attempt at the same time to find the due place in the modern democratic scheme for this new propaganda and to suggest its gradually evolving code of ethics and practice."
(On The Memorial Daze - 4, quoting from Propaganda, a book by Bernays, emphasis added). No doubt this is a cultural phenomenon as indicated by the ("The American population has experienced remarkable change in cranial morphology") quote from "Cranial change in America: 1815 to 1980, Richard L. Jantz, Lee M. Jantz, Anthropology, University of Tennessee" in Section I above.
III. Words Matter and The Matter of Words
An old Dredd Blog series was recently updated (Good Nomenclature: A Matter of Life and Death - 5).
That series goes way back in time to advocate for a language nomenclature that has one meaning and only one meaning for each word.
Words are made out of atoms, which are matter, and the more meanings there are for each word causes an increase in the quantity of matter in the brain (for example: a circuit for one word and one meaning takes up x atoms, a circuit for one word and ten meanings for that same word takes up 10x atoms).
At some point the brain's room/capacity is filled with matter, much of it a waste of space, so remodeling of the walls of the room (skull) is required.
IV. Closing Comments
Today's appendices show an instance of the multiple meanings that Greek and Hebrew words are translated into by translators of the Bible (Appendices AB, CJ, KN, OS, and TZ; cf. here for a list of appendices (GS a-b, GS c-j, GS k-n, GS o-s, and GS t-z) containing the books, chapters, and verses they appear in).
Since "According to Guinness World Records as of 1995, the Bible is the best-selling book of all time with an estimated 5 billion copies sold and distributed" (Wikipedia), the increasing matter in the brains of "evangelicals" may be a cultural problem that a better nomenclature would remedy (Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 4).
The previous post in this series is here.
"New skull space could accommodate a tennis ball's worth of brain." - National Geographic (Link).
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