Cell Memories (Identity)

by dhw, Saturday, October 19, 2013, 19:37 (4052 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Why on earth would a transplant patient lie about a change in eating habits, sexual orientation, having someone else's vivid memories? Their statements were confirmed by third parties as veridical, and I would hesitate to brand the authors and patients as a bunch of liars.-DAVID: Your word is liar, not mine. I am very aware of placebo effect and used it in my practice. These are statements of feelings generally. Quote one of true exact memory gained by another. -What placebo effect? What general feelings? Have you read these stories? All of them entail strange and sometimes terrible effects on the patient. The little girl's nightmares provided information that enabled the police to arrest the murderer. What placebo effect is this? Which of the anecdotes relate to "feelings generally"? They all describe extremely precise changes "inherited" by the patient from the donor. Please read the anecdotes again.-dhw: I presume you are referring to the fact that bacteria, just like ourselves, "continually monitor their external and internal environments and compute functional outputs based on information provided by their sensory apparatus." The senses work automatically, but it is what Shapiro calls the "cognitive capabilities" that enable cells (and us) to use the information intelligently. -DAVID: Yes, cells monitor and respond automatically. Shapiro shows that.-So when Shapiro talks of the "cognitive capabilities" of cells, describes even the tiniest cells as "sentient beings", and talks of "possible intelligent cellular action in evolution" he actually means cells are automatons. I have tried in vain to find out more about his religious beliefs, but so far as I can tell, his book Evolution in the 21st Century makes no mention of God preprogramming every evolutionary innovation into the first living cells. Do you actually know of any biochemist who subscribes to this particular view of evolution?