Evolution of multicellularity (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, October 26, 2012, 18:34 (4412 days ago) @ dhw


> DAVID: Unfortunately a living organism contains million of cells and many different kinds of functioning cells. The cells themselves are very complex expressions of different parts of DNA. How they would negotiate to combine and organize from single cells to a mass of cells as described is beyond my comprehension. All examples we have of cooperation are relatively simple. A cell swallows another cell and we have mitochondria. I'd love to know how a cell could swallow another cell and make a heart. That is a simple organ, a muscular sack with an electric system. Try for a liver or a kidney. They are both entire chemistry laboratories, disposing of waste and making hormones and other products at the same time, all under feedback loop controls. Yes, cells are obviously using intelligence. I keep asking where did the intelligence come from?
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> dhw: I'm somewhat baffled by your claim that "all examples of cooperation are relatively simple". Isn't every organ a massive community of cells that cooperate, and isn't every body a mass of cell communities cooperating? -Without seeming to pull rank, my physician's view of complex organs is different than yours. Those organs are as complex as any factory you can find, including all the masterminds running and designing within it. Swallowing an organism to make a mitochondrium is simple by comparison. What is not so simple is creating the first organism and then the second swallowed organism. That was a miraculous job. Then the organs themselves have needs. Who sends blood and nerve supply, which are separate organs. I can't imagine a liver cell asking an arterial cell to send over some red blood cells before I die!-> 
> dhw: Where the intelligence came from initially is a separate question.-No, it isn't. Teaching your intelligent cells to work cooperatively is a monumental mental job. It takes an enormous amount of information to get that done. I agree cells are intelligent. I'm not willing to take your next step. Team play requires a coach. Ask any soccer team, any football team.-> dhw:If instead we follow the principle of intelligent cells cooperating to form new combinations in accordance with the latitude allowed by a changing environment, these problems disappear. Sometimes I get the impression that you agree, but then you seem to withdraw your support for the idea!-Your concept is way too simple, as I describe above.