cellular intelligence (Evolution)

by dhw, Friday, July 21, 2017, 11:35 (2680 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: You have again skipped over the continuum of intelligence point I make. The very first cells had to have intelligent information in order to function. That information cannot originate from a rocky inorganic Earth. The appearance of intelligent activity by bacteria or the cells of a multicellular organism must recognize that origin.

dhw: I hereby do solemnly declare that I recognize the fact that if cellular intelligence exists (it is a hypothesis), just like life itself it must have had an origin. I also hereby declare that nobody knows the origin of life or of cellular intelligence. And I also hereby declare that a god of some kind is one possible origin, that sheer chance is another possible origin, that some kind of panpsychic evolution is another possible origin, and that I can’t believe in any of these possible origins. And I finally hereby declare that my total ignorance of the origin of cellular intelligence (like that of life) does not mean that cellular intelligence (or life) does not exist.

DAVID: You have again dismissed or skipped over the presence of intelligent information needed to have life appear.

I define information as facts relating to a specific subject. I do not believe that information is intelligent, or is capable of achieving anything at all until it is USED.*** The information needed (and the manner in which it has been used) to have life and cellular intelligence appear may be the product of intelligence, may be the product of chance, or may be the product of some kind of panpsychic evolution, as stated above. Meanwhile, you have again dismissed or skipped over the fact that not knowing the origin of cellular intelligence (like that of life) does not mean that cellular intelligence (or life) does not exist.

*** QUOTE under “Information; applied to matter creates life”:
“Information itself has no material properties, it has no weight, it has no power to do anything. But when combined with enabling material technology, there are no limits to its power."

Precisely.