Biological complexity: Feedback loop importance (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, April 24, 2016, 13:13 (3135 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Without feedback loops in cells function and even embryonic formation of organs would not take place. DNA makes proteins, but the controls for the uses of those proteins lie in feedback loops present in cells. This is where the 'intelligent' reaction of cells is managed. This is a long essay, which should be fully read, because it shows how DNA is just a starting pint for life to form itself and work at living:-https://aeon.co/essays/the-feedback-loop-is-a-better-symbol-of-life-than-the-helix?utm_...-I read the essay and made my own list of quotes, which I then found was more or less the same as yours. There is no need to repeat them. The gist of the whole article (correct me if necessary) is that cell communities throughout Nature organize themselves to cope with the demands of the environment. The feedback loop simply tells us how they interact. Strikingly, the essay only talks about adaptation, and never about innovation, which is the great mystery underlying evolution, but in both processes there obviously has to be a physical mechanism whereby cells can make changes to themselves. Over and over again, we see the expression “self-organize” which takes place through communication between the cells. Advance planning is not possible, because organisms cannot predict environmental change. And that is as far as the essay can take us. It does not tell us that “Shapiro is wrong”, or that your theory concerning God's “guidance” is wrong. It only tells us that cell communities “self-organize” (without advance planning) to enable themselves to function, and makes no attempt to explain what directs the mechanisms that do the organizing.