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What would happen/Is it possible
#1
What would happen/Is it possible
So these are two questions, not one[All for curiosity, of course. Smile]

1st: Is it possible that someone can have a growth/birth defect(idk what to call it) that causes rapid brain growth, kind of like how some people have rapid overall growth(as in they get super tall), and other things to that nature. I know it's possible for the rest of the body, but could it possibly apply to the brain?

2nd: Assuming this was possible, what do you think would happen? What would be the consequences? If from infancy to adulthood your brain grew triple the normal speed, you can imagine the amount of brain capacity you would have would make you exponentially smarter, or maybe it wouldn't, what do you think?
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#2
RE: What would happen/Is it possible
I'm assuming you also mean the head will grow respectively in proportion to accommodate the larger brain.
If the subject doesn't break his/her neck, and the brain is healthy, then I suppose the potential is there.
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
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#3
RE: What would happen/Is it possible
(October 19, 2015 at 8:01 pm)heatiosrs Wrote: So these are two questions, not one[All for curiosity, of course. Smile]

1st: Is it possible that someone can have a growth/birth defect(idk what to call it) that causes rapid brain growth, kind of like how some people have rapid overall growth(as in they get super tall), and other things to that nature. I know it's possible for the rest of the body, but could it possibly apply to the brain?

2nd: Assuming this was possible, what do you think would happen? What would be the consequences? If from infancy to adulthood your brain grew triple the normal speed, you can imagine the amount of brain capacity you would have would make you exponentially smarter, or maybe it wouldn't, what do you think?

I have an unpleasant idea as to what might occur.

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#4
RE: What would happen/Is it possible
I believe there may be a condition that would/could cause such rapid brain growth. I'd have to do some research to know, however. Though I have seem rapid brain swelling.

Rapid brain growth does not equate to rapid rise in intellect. Also, if your brain were to grow rapidly, your skull would also have to grow correspondingly or the result will be death.

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#5
RE: What would happen/Is it possible
Wrinkling of the surface, internal cross connections, synaptic density yada yada yada all contribute to intelligence.

Whales have enormous brains (not in proportion to their bodies however) compared to ours and it hasn't let them build rockets or come up with TV shows like Dancing With the Stars.
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#6
RE: What would happen/Is it possible
A better, more realistic scenario would be for some interesting cross-wiring going on in the brain like the human calculator guy that can do very complex calculations faster than people can punch them into a calculator. The part of his brain that does math was cross-wired with parts of the brain that are responsible for movement.

Quote:Tests via a MRI scan, whilst on Stan Lees Super Human Show revealed that when he is calculating numbers a different area of his brain is being used – the part that is normally associated with movement (close to the motor cortex).

http://www.sapienplus.com/super-human-nu...flansburg/
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#7
RE: What would happen/Is it possible
It seems like if this happened there would be no definite answer, so, technically it's not impossible that this could happen in the perfect way, and all the stars could align. An expansion of that only effected parts to do with cognitive ability, or creativity, or something else(nothing to do with movement or physical functions).


I'm probably digging too far into my imagination here, but I would like to think that it's possible one day someone will be born with a condition like this, a condition so specific that allows you to retain all normal function and only have benefits. Actually come to think of it, I think I just discovered how we will eventually evolve. Someone will be born with this, and they will be super intelligent, and more and more people will be born(you know, obviously, in a stretched time span) until this is the normal. Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but when our intelligence makes a leap in the evolutionary time span, this would probably be how it's done, a deformity that only increases intelligence(for lack of more specific words) but still allows the person to retain all normal functions and not sacrifice any major function to do so. I'll concede that I really don't know that much about evolution(obviously I have a basic understanding) but I am no expert on what's possible/not possible, but didn't all species, and other groups of life(to put it very broadly) come from some creature that was born "deformed" in the traditional sense that they strayed from the normal expectation of that species?

Sorry, my mind trailed off, I tend to do that a lot
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#8
RE: What would happen/Is it possible
Given enough time, it may happen if it's beneficial for the survival of the species.
By then, we'd probably all look like aliens anyway....
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
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#9
RE: What would happen/Is it possible
(October 20, 2015 at 12:30 am)ignoramus Wrote: Given enough time, it may happen if it's beneficial for the survival of the species.
By then, we'd probably all look like aliens anyway....
If we someday turned in to what we think of as "Aliens" now, we wouldn't think of ourselves as aliens, so the real question is; what would we associated with looking like an "Alien" at that point? #Mindfuck

[Also i'm pretty sure disregarding the confusing question that by the time that happens we will either have gone through mass extinction, or already discovered other life in the universe that would totally alter our view of what an "Alien" looks like]
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#10
RE: What would happen/Is it possible
Brain size isn't the only factor effecting intelligence, and I personally feel, after an optimal threshold, and increased mass would be counter-productive. You see in an infant the brain will develop through synaptogenesis, when the synaptic connection initially form, however recognizable intelligence emerges in the later stages of brain development when synaptinc pruning occurs where useless connections are dropped-off and get rewired to make things more efficient. Genes such as HMGA2 might play an important role here.

Think of it like this, the more data you put in your mobile memory, the slower it gets, because processing the increased data takes longer. When extended to the brain, after a certain limit, I feel the brain would start losing it's efficiency as well.
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