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From: rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo)
Newsgroups: net.sci
Subject: Re: darwinism
Message-ID: <1477@bbncca.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 28-Jun-85 16:25:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: bbncca.1477
Posted: Fri Jun 28 16:25:33 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Jun-85 00:22:18 EDT
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Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma.
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I don't know about the % of gray matter "normally" used, but one
installment of either the PBS series "The Mind" or another Nova
program provided the following startling findings:

Using recently developed (tomographic?) techniques for scanning
the brain in detail along various physical variables, researchers
found that a number of people who suffered massive brain damage
at birth or early in life but who display not only above average
abilities but high general intelligence (unlike the "calculating
idiots") are using less than 10%, in some cases less than 5%,
of their brain mass: the rest is clinically or effectively dead!

I haven't though about how this relates to evolutionary issues,
but it struck me that these simple facts must have a serious
impact on various theories about how the brain works:  wouldn't
most of the current theories imply however vaguely a wide yet 
limited range of possible values for variables like % of active
brain mass minimally necessary, etc., values well above those
of the above findings?

					Ron Rizzo