If the human brain has the potential and power it has been proposed, how can that potential be realized?

Question

As I look at the world around me, and consider the path we seem to always follow, which is, intolerance, violence, and selfishness. It seems the saddest comentary of the human race will be that we had the answers to the problems we faced but we failed bacause we never reached our potencial, and never considered any point of view but our own. If there is a God why would he create us all, place us all on one planet and not expect us to get along?

Answer 1

I, for one, don't think that we are fully evolved - what with our reptilian brain and tail stem, stupid superstitions and unwillingness and inability to tolerate differences. When we look at some of the assnine and brainless things going on in the world - it's a sad commentary to what could be. Hopefully, in time, the human race will mature.

Answer 2

I think the example you are giving about the % of our brain in usage is more representative of our understanding of the human brain. Just because a certain area of the brain is not in usage at one time, doesn't mean it isn't used at all. Imagine if 100% of your muscles were to be "used" at one time...to say the least it would NOT perform optimally! To pull up your biceps contract while your triceps relax...to push away your triceps activate while your biceps relax. (Over simplification, but you get the idea.)

Could you imagine what the sensory overload would be like if you remembered every single memory at the same time? Every lesson, every sound, every color, etc....?

It's been shown that when brain damage occurs under certain circumstances, the human brain can retrain itself to bypass the damaged areas. If you are using every brain cell for a purpose, then you have no available resource as a "backup".

Of course this doesn't prevent us from studying the workings of the human brain to try and improve on our understanding of it. Perhaps when we understand how it works more completely we can develop a more accurate yardstick for measuring our potential. I think, fundamentally, your question is a philosophical one....it's not our hardware that is at fault, but the software we chose to program and run that crashes the systems we live in.

(LeAnne: Remember, the only things that don't evolve are the dead...hopefully humans will never be "fully" evolved...but I share your desire to hurry along this particular stage of our evolution.)