Genome complexity: variation within species (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, December 18, 2016, 13:22 (2898 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: What you call intelligence is the presence of alternative metabolic pathways. If one is not working the organism, the next is switched on, nothing more.

dhw: What switches it on, and why is it switched on in some but not in others if your God made the mechanism automatic?

DAVID: Organisms have the ability to use whatever metabolic pathways are available within them. With species variability, not all organisms in the species have the same pathways onboard, which is why some are partially or fully immune/resistant and some are not. And remember horizontal gene transfer is also present primarily in bacteria.

Intelligent organisms - including humans – have the ability to use whatever pathways are available to them. With species variability, not all organisms in the species – including humans – have the same pathways on board, which is why some are more intelligent than others. And remember that such manifestations of intelligence as communication and cooperation and information-processing and decision-making are integral to the behaviour even of bacteria.