12-03-2018, 05:28 AM
I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with you on the importance of brain size, Drashner1. While Transapient brains may well be structured very differently to human brains, they also require an enormous amount of processing power to run. In the case of the Athenaeids, 1 cubic centimetre of their brain is equivalent to 40 modosophont intellects, so clearly running a Transapient mind is not a trivial task. A human brain could never run a mind of such complexity due to its low computing density, and would need to be thousands of times larger to meet the minimum processing requirements, in addition to any restructuring required.
That said, brain size does seem to become less important as one traverses the toposophic scale, with S4 and S5 minds requiring proportionally less of an increase in size compared to what S2 and S3 beings must undergo. The higher toposophics do seem to be more a matter of mind structure than raw power, apparently because they've discovered new computing substrates like Plasma Processors which have orders of magnitude more computing power per litre than the crude Ultimate Chips the lower toposophics must make do with.
It's worth noting that this isn't the case for humans and our primate ancestors. Our brains are structurally almost identical to chimp brains, just scaled up to have a vastly higher neuron count, which required our brains to increase in size. We do have specialised brain areas for language processing and other things, but the basic layout of our brains is hardly different to other primates. We're nothing special or new in evolutionary terms, just a bigger brained chimp with more raw power and a few nifty new skills like abstract language.
Regarding Highbrows, they are described as being an offshoot of Homo Superior (they're listed under the category of Superiors at any rate), and so it's reasonable to assume that their brains are made of the same neurons and synapses as other humans. Our current entry on Highbrows doesn't explain how their brains work differently to those of Superiors, and to me seems to suggest that their increased brain power alone brings them to 'near-Transapient' status. Of course, it's a very old article, so this is forgivable, but Superior-level neural enhancements wouldn't be enough by themselves to fully utilize such a massive brain.
That said, brain size does seem to become less important as one traverses the toposophic scale, with S4 and S5 minds requiring proportionally less of an increase in size compared to what S2 and S3 beings must undergo. The higher toposophics do seem to be more a matter of mind structure than raw power, apparently because they've discovered new computing substrates like Plasma Processors which have orders of magnitude more computing power per litre than the crude Ultimate Chips the lower toposophics must make do with.
It's worth noting that this isn't the case for humans and our primate ancestors. Our brains are structurally almost identical to chimp brains, just scaled up to have a vastly higher neuron count, which required our brains to increase in size. We do have specialised brain areas for language processing and other things, but the basic layout of our brains is hardly different to other primates. We're nothing special or new in evolutionary terms, just a bigger brained chimp with more raw power and a few nifty new skills like abstract language.
Regarding Highbrows, they are described as being an offshoot of Homo Superior (they're listed under the category of Superiors at any rate), and so it's reasonable to assume that their brains are made of the same neurons and synapses as other humans. Our current entry on Highbrows doesn't explain how their brains work differently to those of Superiors, and to me seems to suggest that their increased brain power alone brings them to 'near-Transapient' status. Of course, it's a very old article, so this is forgivable, but Superior-level neural enhancements wouldn't be enough by themselves to fully utilize such a massive brain.