Puberty.

Puberty.
Andre Willers
8 Apr 2010

For Carl .
I can only tell you where we have been.

Synopsis:
Human puberty is triggered by neuronal growth and a resistance to apoptosis .

Discussion :

Neuronal survivors of the apoptosis experience (age 1-5) have an evolutionary reluctance to apoptosis . The surviving neurons have a tendency to avoid apoptosis by generating signals internally .
(The apoptosis mechanism works by zapping any neuronal networks not used . Evolution in action .)

At about human age 12 , body mass and timers lead to an explosion of neurons and neuronal connectivity . Depending on the society , this is soaked up by social complexity and science .

This is usually insufficient , so sex is born (puberty-usually 2-3 years after start of neuronal growth spurt) .

Note that the unused neuronal complexity triggers puberty , not the inverse .
The smarter you are , the later puberty in an information rich environment .

Then sex and fashion . This can soak up an infinity (at least aleph(0)) of complexity .
Why it is , well , fashionable .

Surplus neuronal connectivity self-survives by generating mirror-networks . Hence the multiple variations of reality typical of human adolescence .

This translates as a reality-disconnect . Most humans cannot understand different realities as seen by an adolescent .

Most adolescents are smarter than adults , in purely neurological terms .

Your mind has grown connections that don't want to die . So they perpetuate themselves by continuing to generate signals .

That about sums up the human experience .

An amusing insight : Adolescents are loaded with maximal loads exactly at this time when their neuronal growth is at a maximum . High school . This is to program the system at maximum susceptible stage . As new neuronal networks are being formed , and old ones being apoptosed .

And you thought it was complicated .

This is inclined to make me mad .

No apoptosis without consent !

Andre.