Cell Memories (Identity)

by dhw, Monday, July 28, 2014, 10:11 (3559 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: If cellular intelligence lies within the genome, that's fine with me. (Albrecht-Buehler thinks the control centre is the centrosome.) All I ask is acknowledgement that although much cellular behaviour is undoubtedly automatic once an innovation has established itself - as is clear from the work of our own cellular communities - Margulis, Shapiro, Albrecht-Buehler & Co. may be right when they say cells are intelligent, sentient beings. This provides us with a vital clue as to how evolutionary adaptation and innovation may have taken place.-DAVID: Fine. Our difference is conceptual. The cells have intelligent information in the genome which drives their responses to changes. We really don't know what drives evolution in a clear concept. Random mutations are mostly deleterious.-What do you mean by “drives evolution in a clear concept”? The whole point of the “intelligent cell” concept is that it does away with the unlikelihood of random mutations, and suggests instead that cells and cell communities work out ways of adapting to or exploiting environmental changes.
 
DAVID: Epigentics, which implies whole organism responses is more likely...-No problem here. Every “whole organism” is a cell community or a community of cell communities. An organism can only respond effectively if all its cells and cell communities cooperate.-DAVID: ...but where I disagree with you is I believe that information in the genome provides response capacity, and the cells automatically use them. This is a layered concept. A bacterium does this all in one cell body. -You are not just disagreeing with me, but you appear to be categorically rejecting the research of several experts in the field who tell us that cells are not automata but sentient, intelligent beings, from bacteria onwards. However, “information in the genome provides response capacity” is pretty woolly wording. The capacity for response is what I mean by intelligence, in the sense that an effective response will require perception and processing of new information, communication between cells and cell communities, and decisions as to how the information is to be used. All that is essential to a “capacity for response”, or - to put it slightly differently - to “intelligence”. If this is in the genome, so be it. Since you have now agreed (under “Junk DNA”) that adaptations and innovations are not preprogrammed, you are effectively saying that the genome provides the intelligence that makes the cell intelligent. I'll settle for that!