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Impulsiveness May Increase With Complexity

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Posted by Richard Ruquist on December 23, 2001 19:53:35 UTC

Goedel's incompleteness theorem suggests, to me anyway, that the number of irreducible solutions (or truths) increase with increasing complexity.

I also have the intuitive feeling that impulses are akin to irreducible solutions. Impulses are perhaps irrational behavior, and somehow I aasociate irrational behavior with irreducibility. If you cannot derive a solution from first principles using logic, then the solution is not rational. Rational behavior is based on rules and logic and axioms of acceptance (what is real).

So in my intuituion I would conclude the opposite of you, that the increased human brain complexity would increase the liklihood of impulsive behavior.

There may be animal studies to verify this. In my limited experience, postulating that insanity is an out come of impulsive behavior, or when impulsiveness rules behavior, I suggest that
1. Humans are most liable to insanity of all animals
2. Dogs are less likely than humans, but more likely than cats to be insane.
3. Humans>dogs>cats in brain complexity

Since your field seems to be in neuroscience, and since you seem to be a student, a far-fetched thesis might be the correlation of animal insanity with brain complexity. You would have to define a whole new field and invent measures of insanity that are falsifiable in animals. Maybe sticking with just primates will help. But do not invoke Godel. He is reserved for more metaphysical discussions like on this forum.

Regards,

Richard

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