An inventive mechanism (Evolution)

by dhw, Wednesday, September 17, 2014, 20:34 (3501 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: It's not the first brain, but somewhere along the line there must have been a first brain. I have suggested a mechanism that can do a great deal of its own planning, and the mechanism is in the cell/cell community (of which, of course the genome is a part). Perhaps you can explain why you believe in a “system” but not in a mechanism that can do its own planning.-DAVID: We need a definition of your cell communities' abilities. I view the cells as run by the genome rather automatically; the genome of course resides in the cells, but is expressed differently in different cells. You make it seem as though the cells can manipulate, of their own volition, the major codes of the genome to make major changes. Who is running the show, the genome as I envision it, or the cells running changes in the genome? All we see at this juncture in research is minor variation created by organisms. The gaps in evolution are so complex cells have to have guidance, which must be in the genome.-I only refer to the cell because researchers such as Margulis, Shapiro and Albrecht-Buehler talk of the intelligent cell and not the intelligent genome. The point of the hypothesis is the existence of an autonomous form of intelligence, i.e. a mechanism that does its own planning, and if you think it's within the genome, that's absolutely fine with me. Can we therefore now say goodbye to the 3.7-billion-year-old computer programme with which your God organized every innovation and wonder in the history of life?