Intelligence & Evolution (Evolution)

by David Turell , Saturday, November 16, 2013, 21:16 (3812 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: Many thanks for a most stimulating article. I greatly appreciate the way you draw attention to articles that support ideas you disapprove of. -I started out not sure exactly what to believe. Read everything is every direction and reached logical conclusions. 
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> dhw: The problem, of course, is the beginning of individualized consciousness ... but that's no more of a convolution than the never-beginning consciousness of your God. -It is really a mystery, how any degree of consciousness arose. But we have it. Could an inorganic universe develop it without creating life and our powerful minds? I don't think an inorganic universe, by itself, could ever do that.-> 
> dhw; I take intelligence to mean the ABILITY to use information, and that ability evolves with experience and the acquisition of knowledge. We know how it's used, but we don't know where it comes from or even what it consists of.......... So why are you so certain that humans have the ability but ants don't? How can you tell whether an organism is behaving intelligently because it is intelligent (i.e. has its own ability to use information) or because it has been preprogrammed to behave as if it were intelligent?-One problem with your reply is lack of a source for information. Where does the information originate that intelligence then uses? Imagine an initial living cell. It must develop some way to sense food sources and using that information then learn responses to get the food. It is a chicken/egg situation from the beginning. It means the initial cells were more complete and more complex than origin of life theories generally allow for.-As for the second part, the ant is either intelligent or behaves as if it is, and the simple answer we can't really tell. But on observaatin of ant or bee societies, the roles of the various types of insects are so rigid, it all looks like instinct. You want to get the ants and bees to think their way there from simpler beginnings. I think it is more logical to assume they worked from a framework of plans. Termite mound, bee hives, and wasps nests always look exactly the same.