Cell Memories (Identity)

by David Turell , Wednesday, July 23, 2014, 16:36 (3775 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: You don't seem to realize that your panentheism is a form of panpsychism.-No, I fully understand that point and recognize the relationship. It is just that I am willing to accept that information runs biology rather automatically and you are not.
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> DAVID: I differ, as you note, in that I think the information is a strong guide, and as a result the cells cooperate with each other under strong controls, and never on their own. 
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> dhw: I'm not sure to what extent you are juggling with the word “information” here. The information provided by the environment certainly provides a strong guide. The information that constitutes the intelligence of the cell community (e.g. knowing how to perceive, to process perceptions, to work out strategies, to communicate with other cell communities) will also be limited, just as our own intelligence is limited, and in that sense may be called controlled (i.e. by its limitations). This does not in any way preclude the non-automatic, autonomous, perceptive, communicative, decision-making faculty that some of us would define as "intelligence".-This statement of yours clearly defines our difference in inerpretation. I see information in the genome running the show, guiding adaptive responses. That is the "intelligence" you see. Simple question. Is DNA a code? Doesn't a code impart information when deciphered? Don't you accept this?
 
> dhw: Not being willing to take a blind leap of faith does not mean that “one insists on absolute proof”.-How much proof do you need?