Social NatureChapter 6

Social Nature of Intelligence*• Hyper

– Rich social experience (over million years) hyper social instincts (memory, language, empathy, sympathy, collaboration, and reasoning)

• Facilitate meeting of minds

• Expectant– Capacity to think, learn and achieve is expectant

(depends) of the social experience that constructed it

• Cultivate common purpose

• Dependent – Social experience is the greatest provocateur of

thinking and learning• Cultivate common purpose

* Interrelated

• Extended – Invention of a variety of media that

extends social interactions beyond face-to-face encounters

• Extended the mind’s reach

• Virtuous – Instinctive moral orientation to prosocial

behavior• Achieve behaviors that would benefit the group

• Human brain evolved from rich social experiences

• Physiological architecture of the brain is the platform in which your intelligence performs, but social experience is an influential architect and operator of the platform

• Social definition as living together or as interrelated interdependent elements

• The beginning of the universeorganized simple structures into complex and evolving systems = brain is a system that is disposed to

interact with like brain systems

Selfish gene theory = individual life forms consistently do things to benefit the survival of genes

The History – The Experience

Ancient primate, 50 million yrs. ago began to develop the size of their brain as result of cost benefit calculations on how to get foodBenefiting life in social communities – vigilance against enemiesSo they began to refine their sensory processing of visual and auditory information to be attuned to any type of communication or warning—those who were better at it became leaders of the communitiesAnd hierarchies in the social group were developed

Emotions began to develop within the social group by social observation skills as result of keeping homeostasis within the group With emotions became the development of awareness and the ability to infer, predict, and planmental capacity to anticipate events And approximately 2.5 millions years ago, humans put together a neural pattern for tool making = social aspect of learninginventions are usual contributions of a few working together Language emerged from social experience (intimacy) Broca area and Wernicke’s area were developed in the brain to deal with this behavior

Stability

• What are the implications for the future using the evolution information that we have discussed?

• In other words, based on what we are currently doing in our lives, how do you see the human being as a social entity in the future?

Linear Development Evolutionrefinement of what already been changed

Collateral Development Collateral Development

•Walking erect – 2 footed balancenew brain circuitry•Upright posture – better perspective for visual scanning

•Hand dexterity to make and use tools•Reduced exposure to the sun

Cognitive fluidity = Swiss Army Knife

Social heritage of brain’s evolutionary experience is displayed in:•Its size and organization•Emotional acuity (security)•Capacity to create and manipulate mental templates (executive functions)•And, figure things out

Cells and moleculesopened to environmentalinfluences

• Highly evolved neural mechanisms– Syntactic and & semantic

language

– Evolved neural mechanisms for social interactions

• Muscle endings in their facial skinfacial expressions

• Verbal messages include expressions, tone

• And at times smell, taste & touch• Gut feeling

• Consciousness = meaning, memory, emotion, & reflection– Reflective manipulation of

informationexecutive skills

– Awareness and management of emotions to good effect

Facing Environmental Influences

• Let’s refine our previous answers….– Do you see any future linear evolutionary

changes as result of your past answers?– How about collateral development?– Do you think that we will expand our present

state of consciousness as result of the changes that you mentioned?

• Social unfolding of its potential– Ontogeny (development)– Philogeny (evolution)

– Fundamental work of the brain occurs through the flow of electrochemically encoded information at the neural cell

– The growth of the cell is both environmentally and genetically directed

– As the primitive brain began to face more complicated tasks, specifically neural networks were developed (evolution)

– These networks progressively influenced the genetic adaptations

– These genetic adaptations needed the influence of the environment to flourish

The Human Brain is Experience Expectant and Experience Dependant

• Experience Expectant– At certain developmental

periods on the human life, there is a genetically generated excess of neural networks

– Occurs from birth to adolescence

– Dendritic & axonal extensions ready

– Pruning also occurs– Expectations of certain

stimulation cues occur– Plasticity – Life long process

• Experience Dependant– Brain is ready to have

environmental interaction in order to grow and mature

– “Use it or lose it, but do not abuse it”

• The Human Brain Seeks Ways to Expand Opportunities to Interact With Other Brains– 50,000 yrs. ago written language graphics– Now, communication technologies, radio,

photography, movies, television, & Internet

• Social Experience Actualizes Human Intelligence– Brain was made to interact with other brains– Social interaction since early childhood are the

bases for adulthood intellectual capacities