Natures wonders: Crocodile tools (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 19:43 (3998 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

dhw: You juggle with two types of information: information in the genetic code, and information we absorb and process from our contact with the outside world. Whenever I want to discuss the mechanism (intelligence) which deals with the latter, you switch to the former and ask for its source. -DAVID: That is because I want you to clearly make the distinction. I know there are both kinds of information as you do, but I am insisting that in the simple organisms, what looks like intelligence is really programs running on information in the genome, and those programs respond to information the sensory mechanism pick up.-TONY: Even a simple computer program can learn new routines.-The rest of the post follows the same line of argument, as does David's latest. So let us focus solely on ants. What exactly is the theistic theory on offer here? 1) God preprogrammed the very first living cells to pass on the programme that would produce ants (along with umpteen billion other species) plus every single response that ants could make to a changing environment, including the building of underground cities, farming, military strategies, teaching the young etc. 2) God specially created ants, and inserted a programme for every single response, as in 1). 3) God preprogrammed the very first living cells to pass on the programme that would produce ants, but every so often, when ants face new problems, he dabbles with the programme to provide them with a solution (e.g. rafting). Or 4) God provided the very first living cells with a mechanism enabling them to cooperate freely (i.e. not preprogrammed) in producing any number of species, including ants which would also cooperate freely (i.e. not preprogrammned) in working out their own solutions to new problems.