Intelligence & Evolution (Evolution)

by dhw, Monday, October 21, 2013, 14:25 (4050 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: You have agreed that divine preprogramming is the only explanation for innovations, but now oddball forms and lifestyles magically "appear"!
 
DAVID: Not entirely magically. Note my reference to epigenetic mechanisms. Obviously I am only making logical guesses, but it is my contention that cells are automatons, but also with epigenetic ability to try out new styles of living (migration), new forms of capture of food (venus fly trap) when the soil is not very carboniferous, new sizes when guppies end up in the wrong stream, new beaks when the size of seeds change (finches). Again, I don't know if God dabbles, or pre-programs these adaptations from the beginnning.-Even trying out new styles of living and new ways of capturing food entails existing cell communities (organs) experimenting, learning, using information for specific purposes. And if cellular combinations change as a result of these activities, it can only be as a result of selections made and decisions taken.
 
DAVID: ...the cell uses intelligent information given to it in the beginning. I think the cell has a small group of automatic epigenetic responses from which it can make attempts to solve its problem...-I don't believe evolution has progressed solely because of problems. As we keep telling each other, it could have stuck with bacteria if that was the case. New opportunities would have played just as important a role (e.g.- and especially -in the Cambrian Explosion). However your multiple choice theory makes for a fascinating scenario:-Sweet little Archie Optrex (always a sight for sore eyes) was running for his life, chased by big and nasty Tyrone Sore-Ass. Just like everyone else, Archie was made of cell automatons, but enough intelligence had somehow emerged from these for him to know that he was in deep shit. Suddenly, from the depths of the quantum world, he heard the recorded voice of the Lord God ... recorded because God had got fed up dabbling in response to every problem of every individual of every species in every environment. "OK Archie," said the voice, "you got a small preprogrammed group of automatic epigenetic responses to choose from: 1) keep on runnin'; 2) make yourself invisible; 3) fly, Archie, fly." Archie had a quick non-think (only humans can think), and what he non-thought was this: "If I keep runnin', I'll be dead in thirty seconds. I can't make myself invisible, 'cos God gave that programme to the chameleon. Bingo, I gotta fly!" And to the sound of angelic trumpets also resounding from the quantum world, little Archie flapped his preprogrammed front legs, tucked his pre-preprogrammed rear legs under his bottom, and soared up into the great blue yonder. And that, boys and girls, is how automatons learn to do things they've never done before.