Natures wonders: Cellular intelligence derailed? (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, December 17, 2013, 00:43 (3993 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: No matter how often and how authoritatively you slip in words like "plan" and "seem", your divinely preprogrammed version remains a purely subjective interpretation of the evolutionary process and of the way cells/cell communities function.-We now know that protein production and transcription controls and modifications are part of two layered codes in DNA; first the simple one of 50-60 years ago, and now the second complex planning layer which helps organize single proteins into complex organs. There has to be an organizing plan controlling all of this from the beginning.
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> dhw: That's because although you acknowledge that there are different types and levels of intelligence, you seem to think only in terms of humans and computers. Why must intelligence presuppose the possibility of dissent? ..... Only humans and to a lesser degree some of our fellow animals have the self-awareness that makes them question what is good for the community ... but that doesn't mean that other organisms don't need intelligence to work out what is good, or to implement the strategies.-How do cells recognize what is good for the community? That is an amorphous suggestion. Tell me how it works.
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> dhw: I hesitate to get drawn into a discussion on the nature of disease, but I'd have thought cancerous cells might represent the sort of "dissent" you're talking about. Would you argue that your God preprogrammed such "dissent"? After all, according to you and David, cells are automatons obeying his instructions.-No, cancer cells manage to escape the tight controls that supervise the constant turn over of living cells. None of us are the same physical person we were a few months ago in parts of our body. The escape can be due to virus, to irritation, and even to faulting genes that allow it. not preprogramming.