The Ever-Developing Brain
I have a theory that development of the brain may not end after childhood. Our brains continue to "develop" until we die. They're constantly learning, changing, and transforming. One of the books I'm reading, Buddha's Brain, talks about one of the dramatic feats that can occur. The occipital cortex in blind people has been known to repurpose itself for auditory functions. This has happened far beyond the years of childhood.
If we know that much to be true, why do we lose some of our brain's power as we progress beyond childhood? My theory is that we may not, at least not in a biological sense. Our brains are so powerful in shaping themselves. But they only do so when it's required, i.e. learning entire native languages without any prior knowledge of communication, or the example with the blind people. It only restructures itself when it's forced to. So what if, instead of losing our biological capabilities upon leaving childhood, we instead box them up and put them in the attic? Every single day our brain gets more comfortable with life as we're living it.
My theory is this. The factor that determines our brain's malleability is not age, rather our level of understanding the reality, or environment, that we live in. As a child, we don't have a clue about anything. Understanding is a need that must be met in the brain, not unlike eating food to satiate hunger. Learning satiates disorientation. Our stomach of understanding is almost always full. Even people that like to learn have most of their stomach of understanding full. They still understand how to communicate to other humans. They still understand how the society they live in works, and how they fit into it. They still understand the environment around them. They understand almost all of their own reality. And there's only so much they can reasonably remove from that understanding. They could move to another country, and that would remove their understanding of communication. But they still carry over much of their reality in a move like that.
Is it possible to reduce our understanding to the amount of a child's? How close can we get, and how can we get there?