Life's biologic complexity: Automatic molecular actions (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, November 29, 2016, 19:28 (2916 days ago) @ dhw

dhw:I am not saying that many of their functions are not automatic. So are ours. But just as we take decisions to deal with new situations, so perhaps do they.

The difference between us is that I have pointed out that the alternate pathways exist and can be switched on and off depending on availability of nutrients , oxygen, etc. No thought necessary, just an automatic chemical switch.

dhw: And I actually find it easier to believe than the idea that they are all machines preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago to choose the right “pathway” for each situation or, just as bizarre, that your God has to keep intervening to show them the way. And we should not forget that much of the time, they don’t actually choose the right “pathway” – hence extinctions, not to mention doctors and undertakers!

To remind you the current accepted theory is most extinctions are bad luck, not bad decision making.