Consciousness; research says insects have it (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, July 11, 2016, 14:38 (3056 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Of course He can be in animals without brains. His consciousness is not manifest in them in the same way. An amoeba is not conscious but automatically responds, following God's programming.
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> dhw: That is why I specifically pointed out that instructions are not consciousness. We talk of man-made machines in terms of “artificial intelligence”. An amoeba is not a man-made machine, and it acts as if it is intelligent. I would call that "natural intelligence".-Which may well be programmed intelligent action.-> dhw: However, if you truly believe that your God inserted programmes into the first amoeba and the first bacteria to provide solutions to every problem that life would throw at them over the next umpteen billion years - or alternatively he pops in to give them further instructions as and when new problems arise - so be it.-Even Darwin scientists point out that advancing mutations actually involve loss of initial information in DNA. Working that backward as in the Big Bang theory approach, how much more information was in the initial DNA of life? Perhaps all programmed from the beginning!