cellular intelligence (Evolution)

by dhw, Sunday, July 23, 2017, 09:32 (2679 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: I do not believe that information has the ability to learn, understand, make decisions etc. It is the creator of information or the user of information that has that ability. However, I am delighted to hear that you now believe there is such a thing as cellular intelligence (i.e. cells have the ability to learn, understand, make decisions etc.) and it is indeed possible that it has been implanted, or that it arose by chance, or that it is the product of some form of panpsychism.

DAVID: I believe there is implanted cellular intelligent information that cells have the ability to act upon, nothing more.

Once more, I do not believe that information has the ability to learn, understand, make decisions etc. (= my definition of intelligence). I define information as the facts related to a particular subject, and I propose that cells have the intelligence to act upon information within themselves (their own capabilities) and from outside themselves (their environment). If you disagree, please give us your own definitions of intelligence and of information.

*** 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."
dhw: Precisely.
DAVID: Agreed.

dhw: So the intelligence comes from whoever/whatever uses the information, or applies the “material technology”, e.g. ants using information about their own bodies, buoyancy, balance, the environment etc. to build their ant-rafts and ant-towers, or cells using information about the environment and about their own capacity for material cooperation and self-organization in order to adapt or innovate.

DAVID: The intelligence in the information appears when the information is used by the cell.

Again, we need your definitions of both terms. I propose that the usefulness of the information appears when it used by the intelligence of the cell.