Bacterial Intelligence? (General)

by David Turell , Wednesday, January 28, 2015, 22:39 (3585 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: This is tautological. All organisms must have the degree of information that enables them to function as they do, otherwise they wouldn't function as they do.-And my question is how did they get that information-> dhw:This does not answer the question how you can possibly know that an organism which LOOKS intelligent is actually an automaton. You appear to believe that bacteria act on instructions preprogrammed by your God.-Exactly.-> dhw: How do you know that you are not the same? Many free-will sceptics argue that although we appear to be acting of our own free will, all the processes that lead to our decisions are already preprogrammed (though of course not necessarily by your God). You may THINK you are autonomous, and you may even LOOK as if you are autonomous, they say, but you ain't.-What anti-free-will theorists think is of no consequence to this discussion. I use a biological computer to run my thoughts and my life. That I have to use living cells which run automatically to develop my thoughts at my bidding has no place in this conversation. I'm not sure why you dragged it in. Bacterial cells and humans are light-years apart. What you want is to view evolution like a continuum, but the fossil record and the record of neurological development are not continuous. There are obvious huge gaps. IM's can't and don't explain those. All of this is is why we disagree. -
> dhw: Shake metaphorical hands with your buddy the bacterium. Or if you insist that you are autonomous, explain to the bacterium how you know he's not. -For some reason you are not absorbing the material I present about cellular processes and how it is all about molecules acting through dynamic organic chemistry reactions, either joining atoms to make molecules or using ion (electrical) charges to aid in folding and in movement of parts and products, acting on very complex instructions just like an automatic auto factory. And if there is a sudden fire in a factory, alarms and sprinklers set off automatically to respond. Bacterial reactions to stimuli are the same. They act as if they have brains, but instead they are acting on very intelligent information implanted in their genome. Is your computer smart? No, but it sure acts that way. View the bacterium like a computerized factory and then you will see my viewpoint..