The biochemistry of cell adhesion and communication (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, December 21, 2015, 00:45 (3260 days ago) @ dhw
edited by David Turell, Monday, December 21, 2015, 00:57


> 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.-Conclusions from work on single cells does not carry over to multicellular organs. Each bacteria must take care of itself or as I've pointed joined with its fellows to cooperate in battle. You've picked up on it:-> dhw: In a separate post you write: 
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> David: 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-> 
> dhw: “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. -You seem to attribute a very complex lifestyle to bacteria. They are simple. They absorb food they sense or they engulf it. If a chemical attack appears they move away or attack. Not a great deal of onboard information is necessary. A kidney cell does much more complex work, and all of its decisions are automatic.
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> dhw; 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)- Of course bacteria are just like described above. Old ground. I have my own interpretation of Shapiro's findings. No point discussing further, but note my comment about kidney cells or liver cells for that matter. This is where my opinion comes from. My knowledge that single cells in complex organisms like humans do much more automatically than bacteria do as independent organisms. So to me bacteria work automatically, and no one can tell whether Shapiro or I am correct as to automatic or independent mechanisms control their lives.