Cambrian Explosion: mutation rate (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, September 18, 2013, 16:25 (4063 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: Same point, same answer. Our human instincts and innovations both "come from" the brain. You are assuming that cells are capable only of instinct, but that does not account for innovation.-I've explained that. DNA contains information whic hallows innovation.-
> dhw: The brain is a community of cells. Instincts are the product of coordinating brain cells using information independently of any conscious control. Human invention is also the product of coordinating brain cells, but is controlled by consciousness, the source of which is unknown. So why assume that cells and cell communities are capable only of instinct and not of innovation?-How conscious are cells? Do they think? I believe they react to chemical stimuli with programmed responses.
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> dhw: My question, though, is how de novo forms are produced in the first place, if not through new types and combinations of cells.
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> DAVID: That is a truism, but I don't know how the de novo forms appear, and neither does Darwin.
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> Nobody does, so why dismiss as poppycock a theory which offers an explanation that covers all the problems thrown up by Darwin's theory?-Only by throwing up a nebulous theory with no basis in biochemistry.-
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> dhw;That is not the point here. We are discussing whether or not cells have a degree of consciousness that enables them to innovate. In your context, this would mean God endowing his invention with independent intelligence.-Not intelligence, useful information, in DNA and used by DNA-
> dhw: Your own comments are also philosophical surmises, but that, you will agree, is not a reason to dismiss them as poppycock. Her surmises, like your own, were based on her scientific studies, and as far as I can tell they do not preclude your own philosophical surmises (she was an agnostic).-No. What is poppycock is your 'intelligent cell' which can think and plan. Cells are automatic reactors and innovation comes from those epigenetic reactions, pre-provided by information from an intelligent conscious source.