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theory: rational problem solving is comparatively *easy* compared to most of what our brain does and can be done with a much smaller brain

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countertheory: rational problem solving is one aspect of cognition that is emphasized in species or individuals when there's pressure for it

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yes, exactly. it's only something that is optimized for when it's necessary. *when optimized for*, it does not require much computation mass

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further hypothesis: imagine a human-like intelligence specifically designed to not have infrastructure for maintaining/using a body

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e.g. EVE Online pod pilot, etc. someone who can think and communicate, but does not need to use arms.

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i would hypothesize that you could make such a brain 10x smaller without making that person less intelligent.

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that is, most of our brain is effectively coprocessors for managing a wide variety of things, and most of those are body-related.

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hmm tool use? cats are physically unable to make diverse tools (if they use any at all), so no need for fine motor control

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there's a semi-prominent theory that most "smart" stuff is basically an outgrowth of being able to hit things with thrown objects

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you have to plan the motion in advance, and suchlike

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huh wait isn't throwing stuff the archetypical "embodied cognition" task? aka the kind of cognition that relies on very little planning

7:22 PM · Jul 16, 2017Twitter Web Client

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ok wait the archetypical task was catching stuff - throwing stuff is another one though (lots of reading here: psychsciencenotes.blogspot.de/p/the-rough-gu)

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embodied cognition would be pretty crap if it excluded planning entirely

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