On Tue, 24 Aug 1999, Cynthia wrote:
(in response to my discussion of physical brain differences due to genetic polymorphisms)
>
> Basically, what you are saying here, is that we all are individuals,
> with brains that have significant differences.
yep, however the differences are generally adaptable. You kind of have to look at it like paint on a wall. You can paint a wood wall or a plasterboard wall or a brick wall *all* pink. So most brains can learn to speak, count, drive a car, etc. However, if you look closely, you may discover the underlying texture of the wood, plasterboard and brick are all pretty different.
>
> But I think we should also remember what an adaptable thing the human mind is.
> There is a case of a young girl who has had half her brain removed, who is
> amazingly close to being normal.
>
Yep. We have so much extra capacity we hardly know what to do with it.
However, I would argue that if you removed an equivalent volume of
the surface of the cortex of a whole brain, you would get a much
different result.
> I find it absurd that so many people without major brain damage,
> are so appallingly stupid.
Not really, the problem is that most of the layers of paint are
put on "externally" without the wall having any conscious
participation or aesthetic sense by which to judge the paint!
As pointed others and Cynthia have pointed out the educational system generally speaking promotes *stupid walls*.
>
> We left the herd and learned to think for ourselves.
>
Some of us never managed to get into the herd in the first place.
Lets take a straw poll, how many people in the group were "outsiders" as children, e.g. played mostly alone, had only a few friends, or were generally rejected by the social cliques that educational system produces?
Robert