Natures wonders: plant dead bee scent attracts flies (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, October 07, 2016, 22:09 (2967 days ago) @ dhw


> David's comment (on dead bee scent): How did chance evolution make this work? I have no idea, but the arrangement is very complex. Without pollination this plant won't survive. Let's assume this fly was pollinating but not often enough. To make the scent the plant had to know the flies' preferences in meals. How did it learn that? Not trial and error as Darwin might suggest. Saltation.
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> dhw: Saltation does not explain how organisms learn! Learning entails sentience plus intelligence. Even trial and error entails intelligence, but the quicker the organism learns, the greater the intelligence. -Just how does a plant learn what as insect likes? Scent proteins are a special class, called esters, in a huge group of protein molecules in biochemistry. How does the plant know how to search for the right molecule? I have no answer except God. How much intelligence do you expect in plants without a brain?-> dhw:You are not surprised when monkeys (and squirrels) manifest signs of intelligence once thought to be exclusively the province of humans, and yet when other organisms show signs of intelligence, e.g. weaverbirds tying complicated knots, wasps and flies working out complex methods of surviving, or even plants learning from experience, these are just misleading outward signs - God has to preprogramme them or personally teach them to perform such feats.
 
Note my acceptance for animals learning involves them having a brain and the degree of complexity the new task involves.