Epigenetics: Passing the effects (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, February 08, 2015, 00:25 (3578 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: If only you could rid yourself of the prejudice that humans alone are possessed of any autonomous inventive intelligence (a prejudice that persists despite the many articles you have posted, demonstrating the reasoning powers of other species) you would see that there is no need for a 3.7-billion-year computer programme to cover every single innovation and lifestyle, or for your God to give personal demonstrations to all his creatures to show them how to build nests and webs and honeycombs and dams, and live wacky lifestyles.-We are covering old territory. I agree with Kauffman that life may contain a self-organizing mechanism. We see it in epigenetic changes that are heritable. I just don't see it as fully autonomous. Humans and other animals reason. I've never denied that. However you continue to fail to see the enormous difference in capacity humans have, and the fact that there was no necessity in evolution to automatically invent humans. Just as Hoyle commented about the resonances of carbon, 'it looks as if someone monkeyed with the works' (paraphrased), the appearance of humans gives the same impression to me.