Genome complexity: stem cell controls (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, November 02, 2015, 14:36 (3091 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: Perhaps by a change in environmental conditions which suddenly allowed for a far greater variety - the same change that would presumably have triggered your God's 3.8-billion-year old computer programme suddenly to “switch on” 200 cell types instead of 2-3, or that inspired your God to personally dabble and do the same thing.
> 
> Here, though, is a possible clue to how it was all done:
> 
> DAVID: Close study shows some of the termites have differing personalities and the colonies have some sort of group think:
> http://www.livescience.com/52644-the-collective-mind-of-the-termite.html?cmpid=NL_LS_we... 
> David's comment: dhw will like this. Not convinced he is not anthropomorphizing them.
> 
> dhw: Yes, I love it. Thank you for the article and for your fair-mindedness in presenting it. Some scientists believe this is precisely how cell communities behave. One tiny quote will sum it up: "The collective intelligence of the colony is quite real, as real as our own intelligence, and we are far from comprehending either.” -I believe in species consciousness just like Sheldrake, which explains this, but doesn't explain evolution.-> dhw: Substitute cellular community for colony, and we are back to your 50/50 acceptance that cells are sentient, cognitive beings, which means they are intelligent and potentially just as capable of complex design as termites are. -My 50/50 is that cells are not sentient, but surprise, you have faith in that concept!
> 
> dhw:Individuality, sentience, cognition, decision-making, survival strategies, communication and in this particular context cooperation (as we find in “committees”) did not originate with humans, so if you believe in common descent reaching back to bacteria, why is it so difficult to accept that these characteristics and procedures may have been inherited from them?-We think through the agency of neurons, and when were they invented? In the pre-Cambrian period about 600 mya, not 3.8 bya. Cells do not think, but react by using well-planned information.