Cell Memories (Identity)

by David Turell , Monday, July 28, 2014, 18:33 (3770 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: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.-Agreed, by using mechanisms in the genome to create adaptations, I think, under tight controls.
> 
> 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.-Agreed.-
> dhw: 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!-Thank you. Agreed. All that is left is to agree on the source of the intelligent information in the genome.