Brains III

"'...a relatively small brain, within limits, doesn't mean these creatures are not intelligent. Their neurones might well be more efficient than ours.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (New York, 2009), p. 582.

Here is the philosophical mind-body question again. See here. A hypothetical alien might have a smaller brain containing fewer neurons. However, his neurons, being more efficient, might exchange electrochemical signals of greater intensity and/or with greater rapidity than ours. Thus, he might be equally intelligent and therefore able to understand, e.g., the proof that there is no highest prime number. However, neuronic interactions on the one hand and conscious reflection on a mathematical proof on the other hand are not only different processes but even different kinds of processes although the former somehow causes the latter.

As John Searle suggested, we need to study psychology and study neurology and find out how they connect. Maybe this third inquiry is philosophy.