Bacterial Intelligence? (General)

by dhw, Wednesday, January 28, 2015, 19:24 (3375 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: You have stated that bacteria “look intelligent but are actually acting more as automatons”. I have asked how you know, and your response is that this is how you look at the issue. How does “looking theoretically” at theoretical instructions theoretically placed in the genome by your theoretical god enable you to tell the difference between an organism that LOOKS intelligent and an organism that IS intelligent? And would you accept the same argument from someone who used it to dismiss the concept of free will? -DAVID: Because that is the way I reason it out. The bacteria MUST have that degree of information to function in responses as they do. As for free will, the concept is so different that I would argue it on different grounds.-This is tautological. All organisms must have the degree of information that enables them to function as they do, otherwise they wouldn't function as they do. This does not answer the question how you can possibly know that an organism which LOOKS intelligent is actually an automaton. You appear to believe that bacteria act on instructions preprogrammed by your God. How do you know that you are not the same? Many free-will sceptics argue that although we appear to be acting of our own free will, all the processes that lead to our decisions are already preprogrammed (though of course not necessarily by your God). You may THINK you are autonomous, and you may even LOOK as if you are autonomous, they say, but you ain't. Shake metaphorical hands with your buddy the bacterium. Or if you insist that you are autonomous, explain to the bacterium how you know he's not. (Unfortunately, he doesn't speak your language, but that also makes you quits, since you don't speak his.)