mammals at least. Invertebrata are mostly hardwired even if they can learn (C. elegans can, with 302 neurons!), dunno about other vertebrata
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I'm being correctly told that existence of crows and octopuses complicates things a lot
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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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... i wonder. if you took a disembodied human and hooked them up to a computer (for decades), would those brain parts atrophy/respecialize?
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I strongly suspect that motor metaphors are baked in at the most basic level of cognition, at least something would remain
evidence: most metaphors for how thoughts feel are spatial in nature - not conclusive but very suggestive
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that said, I'd be extremely interested how a brain untouched by motor metaphors would handle, say, meditation, or describe what "meta" is
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