Re: [Fis] Continuing Discussion of Social and Cultural Complexity

Dear Joseph,

I think it is a mistake to consider the brain in isolation as a
structural complexity. Especially, if your goal is to lead to
questions of social and cultural complexity.

It seems to me that aspects of form independent of the structural
complexity of the human brain are likely to introduce dominant
complexities that are transparent to such an analysis. For example,
height and weight, gender, ethnicity and social status are eliminated
in such an analysis and each of these are contributors to social and
cultural complexity that is unrelated to the superficial complexity
in the form of the brain.

I also think it is an error to consider the brain in isolation to the
rest of the physiological form in general, but that seems to be quite
a different objection.

With respect,
Steven

--
Dr. Steven Ericsson-Zenith
Institute for Advanced Science & Engineering
http://iase.info
On Jan 26, 2007, at 1:31 PM, Joseph Tainter wrote:
> ... The immediate example is not social/cultural complexity  
> (although the example certainly generates social and cultural  
> complexity), but something more fundamental: the complexity of the  
> human brain. As I hope to show, some questions about brain  
> complexity lead into general questions about social and cultural  
> complexity, and indeed about complexity in general.
...
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