Intelligence & Evolution (Evolution)

by David Turell , Sunday, November 10, 2013, 19:59 (4029 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: QUOTE: "But many bacteria and protists also exhibit behaviour that looks remarkably intelligent. This behaviour isn't the result of conscious thought ... the sort you find in humans and other complex animals ... because single-celled organisms don't have nervous systems, let alone brains."
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> Margulis also warned against equating this kind of intelligence with the human type, and the description of them as "biological computers" is probably a term you like. But I like some of these observations:
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> "Bacteria talk to each other with chemicals. They do so for a host of reasons, some of them hard to understand unless you are another bacterium." 
> "In response to these chemical messages, the other bacteria set themselves up further away, completely changing the shape of the colony." 
> "Pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria often use quorum sensing to decide when to launch an attack on their host." 
> "Not only can bacteria be talkative and co-operative, but they also form communities."
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> dhw:Very similar to ants, and considerably less similar to computers. This is not human "intelligence", but intelligence of their own kind.-Yes, the intelligence is of a kind that exists in a planning process, that I predict will be found in DNA.
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> DAVID: As a writer you like the romanticism of the scientists' anthropomorphic descriptions. 
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> dhw: They don't seem to be able to find any other form of description. It's as though our own intelligence is simply a vast extension of the intelligence we have inherited from the cellular communities that were our ancestors. It always surprises me when people accept the idea that we are descended from lesser organisms and yet can't quite accept the idea that what we are derives from them. -Of course, if we accept evolution there is a derivation from the lesser organisms. Our descent does not make the derivation smaller, as you imply. You mention the 'vast extension' yourself. You just don't want to think of it as vast enough to make us different in kind. Tell me if there a is a dividing line of difference for you, or will you refuse to accept any dividing line and keep moving the goal posts?