Revisiting convergence (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, 20:38 (3439 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: The main point of his [Falkowski's] book, as I understand it from reviews, is that the initial living cells were highly complex from the beginning. In my view the cells in multicellularity reflect that complexity in how they function so precisely and automatically.-I'm surprised to hear that this is the main focus. I think most of us learned long ago that the single cell is highly complex, and since we still can't make things reproduce themselves, it seems a fair assumption that the first living cells were also highly complex. And if single cell organisms are complex, one would surely expect multicellular organisms to reflect and enhance that complexity. But of course these are comments on your extrapolations from reviews - not on the book itself. -The complexity of multicellularity would also be reflected by how cell communities use an autonomous inventive mechanism to create innovations before each community slots into automatic implementation of the new structure. And so I still wonder whether Falkowski shares your earlier insistence that this complexity requires a god.-I am also still puzzled by the quote: “all of life's most important innovations were in existence by around 3.5 billion years ago”. This would certainly be a major surprise, but since you have not commented on it, may I assume you are as puzzled as I am?