I have an alternative hypothesis tho: we could say “big brains are for big problems”. As you stated, a blind person still has a similar computational problem to solve, namely navigating a complex 3D environment. In some cases, tons of sense-data will be very easily processed, due to the simplicity of what’s being looked for in that sense data. (Are there cases of animals with very large retinas, but comparatively small brains?)
The sad part of this hypothesis is that it’s difficult to test, as it doesn’t make specific predictions. You’d need to somehow know the computational complexity of surviving in a given environment. (Or, more precisely, the computational complexity where a bigger brain is too much of a cost...)
Yep. All sounds right.
I have an alternative hypothesis tho: we could say “big brains are for big problems”. As you stated, a blind person still has a similar computational problem to solve, namely navigating a complex 3D environment. In some cases, tons of sense-data will be very easily processed, due to the simplicity of what’s being looked for in that sense data. (Are there cases of animals with very large retinas, but comparatively small brains?)
The sad part of this hypothesis is that it’s difficult to test, as it doesn’t make specific predictions. You’d need to somehow know the computational complexity of surviving in a given environment. (Or, more precisely, the computational complexity where a bigger brain is too much of a cost...)