Cell Memories (Identity)

by David Turell , Friday, October 18, 2013, 21:04 (3836 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw:Why on earth would a transplant patient lie about a change in eating habits, sexual orientation, having someone else's vivid memories? Their statements were confirmed by third parties as veridical, and I would hesitate to brand the authors and patients as a bunch of liars.-Your word is liar, not mine. I am very aware of placebo effect and used it in my practice. These are statements of feelings generally. Quote one of true exact memory gained by another. -
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> dhw: I presume you are referring to the fact that bacteria, just like ourselves, "continually monitor their external and internal environments and compute functional outputs based on information provided by their sensory apparatus." The senses work automatically, but it is what Shapiro calls the "cognitive capabilities" that enable cells (and us) to use the information intelligently. -Yes, cells monitor and respond automatically. Shapiro shows that.
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> DAVID: I have always concluded that he is using the word sentient not with its underlying suggestion of thought, but as its strict dictionary definition: "responsive to or conscious of sense impressions." 
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> dhw;I'm glad that even with your scepticism, you yourself accept consciousness as an element of sentience and hence of cells.-No, my quote is conscious, not consciousness. I still insist on a difference of degree. -> 
> dhw: "After a discussion of technical advances in our views about genome organization and the mechanisms of genetic change, I will focus on a growing convergence between biology and information science which offers the potential for scientific investigation of possible intelligent cellular action in evolution."
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> dhw: Clearly he regards intelligent cellular action in evolution as a possibility. That's all I ask, but perhaps this is a metaphor too?-No metaphor. The cells use intelligent information given to them in the genome for their responses