The biochemistry of cell adhesion and communication (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, December 20, 2015, 18:42 (3260 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: I have no idea whether Shapiro has extended his knowledge of bacterial intelligence to his understanding of how evolution works, but since Margulis was also a champion of cellular intelligence and emphasized the importance of cooperation in the history of evolution, I really can't believe I am the first to put the two concepts together.-DAVID: Back to the same issue. Independent intelligence of cells vs. intelligent instructional information to run the cells. As a whole animal biologist I'm solidly with the latter.-I know your opinion. I am merely pointing out that it is contrary to the views of Shapiro and Margulis, and I don't know why you suddenly emphasized Shapiro's work on intelligent single cells, as if that meant cell communities were not intelligent.
In a separate post you write: -This study has an initial insight into the way bacterial colonies wage war. We know that the initial antibiotics came from fungi, but bacteria use them also to protect their colony:
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-bacteria-resist.html
You have emphasized the following:

“...proteins work as signaling systems for lots of different things. They can receive signals from the external environment, signals from other bacteria, signals telling them about the status of their cell in a fluctuating environment.”-"'If something damages a membrane, bacteria have a way of sensing that and then turning on the response," Straight said. (Your bold)-“A way of sensing that” indicates the sentience of bacteria, and unless your God has preprogrammed every possible response to every possible situation for the rest of the life of Planet Earth, I would suggest that ”turning on the response” requires the autonomous intelligence that Shapiro & Co. attribute to bacteria. -David's comment: Once again, protein reactions acting as signal agents. This can all be epigenetic cell-controlled events, per Shapiro, as described in his book, and in my view the instructions exist to direct this.-And in Shapiro's view: ”Living cells and organisms are cognitive (sentient) entities that act and interact purposefully to ensure survival, growth, and proliferation. They possess corresponding sensory, communication, information-processing, and decision-making capabilities." (Quoted on the “More James Barham introduces James Shapiro” thread, 19 August at 21.01)