cellular intelligence (Evolution)

by dhw, Monday, July 17, 2017, 08:46 (2685 days ago)

Dhw (under “big brain”): If your God can create cells that seem to be intelligent, I suspect that he can create cells that actually are intelligent. You keep telling us that nobody can possibly judge from the outside...and so we are back to your dogmatic assertions that you just happen to know the truth.
DAVID: If you would study some cellular biology you would see all the automaticity.

Of course there is automaticity. But according to Shapiro, Margulis, McClintock, Bühler and others there is also intelligence. And they (have) spent a lifetime studying cellular biology.

David’s comment: (under “extracellular matrix”:) This scientist notes the automaticity of controls (note my bold) in cells from multicellular organisms. I am convinced bacteria are no different, except Shapiro's discovery that bacteria have extra controls over their DNA, since everything is in one cell
David’s comment (under “stem cells”): this research applies to stem cells which can turn into many different functioning cells. In view of that, I don't think the result is surprising, but it shows how much control the genome has over itself. Certainly looks designed and not by chance. The ability may go as far back as bacteria as shown in Shapiro's work demonstrating bacteria can modify their own DNA.

The fact that some cells can change their function and bacteria can modify their own DNA offers increasing support for the idea that cell communities themselves may provide the driving force behind evolutionary change. Their versatility and self-control may be the result of design, but that certainly doesn’t mean that they are automatic. Let me repeat that my hypothesis relates to the origin of innovations. Once these are established, they will function automatically until confronted with new challenges or opportunities.