Genome complexity: mechanism stopped evolving (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, May 16, 2016, 17:59 (3114 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: So far as I know, nobody has ever suggested that bacteria are introspective, or that their intelligence/consciousness is to be equated with human consciousness.-Agreed at that level.-> dhw> Once more: the term denotes such attributes as sentience, the ability to register and process information, to communicate and cooperate, to take decisions and solve problems.-All of which can be explained as automatic in molecular reactions and feedback loops.
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> DAVID: Next, energy and matter are interchangeable. God's conscious energy just transformed some of itself into the matter of the universe. 
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> dhw: The “interchangeability” of energy and matter presents a problem here. It fits in with the hypothesis that first cause is an unconscious process of energy and matter eternally transmuting themselves into each other, with matter somehow - the great improbability - becoming aware of the changes. (Awareness is meaningless unless there is something to be aware of.)-Disagree. God as pure energy can be aware of Himself. Why He cannot create matter (which will be unconscious) is not reasonable. Of course, if God has all the attributes assigned to Him, He can create matter from some of His energy.-> dhw: However, your first cause is nothing but eternal conscious energy which at some finite time in the past deliberately transformed "some of itself" into unconscious matter. They are not “interchangeable” in your scenario, because the one is conscious and actually creates the other, which is unconscious.-All particle which form matter are points of energy. E=mC^2. Interchangeable. Pure unconscious matter is potential energy. It is separated in our universe, and if God made this universe, the separation occurred.
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> dhw: As an agnostic, I thoroughly approve of your neutral “conscious living forms appeared”. As a fan of the “cellular intelligence” hypothesis, I also approve of these early living forms being described as “conscious”, though not the same as “consciousness at the level of ours”.-In that statement I am referring to multicellular early forms with a brain, as in the Cambrian Explosion. They were obviously conscious and aware of their surroundings. Don't try to extrapolate my thinking back beyond that. I've made the exact point before.