Defining sentient cells: Cell receptors (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, April 08, 2018, 11:05 (2208 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: If all the decisions are planned using automatic molecular actions, all the decisions are automatic at the cellular level. […] A kidney cell only does what a kidney cell knows to do, balance the liquids and salts in the body.
dhw: Of course if all decisions are preprogrammed, every decision is automatic. And if they’re not preprogrammed, then they are not automatic! A kidney cell is part of a huge community of cells, linked to other huge communities. I am not saying every individual cell is intelligent. I am suggesting that unicellular organisms and cell communities are intelligent. Once something has been invented, it may well function automatically. Intelligence is only required for the invention itself, for modifications, and for the solution of new problems. That is how we can test the intelligence of organisms we can’t communicate with.

DAVID: Are you saying bacteria were invented? I can't believe it.

I have no idea how the first living cells came into being, but one possibility is that your God invented them. My argument above is a response to your claim that bacteria and cell communities are automatons. It would have been interesting for me to learn how else you think we can judge whether organisms are intelligent or not.

dhw: Bacteria have memories, take decisions, communicate, cooperate. Let’s just be clear about your insistence on their automaticity. It means that every single bacterial adaptation throughout the history of life was either preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago, or is the result of your God dabbling. The theistic alternative is that he gave them the means to make their own decisions. Which of these alternatives sounds more likely?
DAVID: Decision making at our level requires thoughtful analysis of complex issues. At the bacterial level they experience very few stimuli: sensing food, sensing danger, sensing a need to move. Not much else. All can be handled by automatic responses.

I am not comparing the bacterial level of decision-making and intelligence to that of humans! I have listed attributes that we normally associate with intelligence. You have failed to come up with any other criteria, and are left with nothing but your belief that these “can be” automatic, which means you yourself “can be” a robot. Maybe you are not. And maybe they are not. Meanwhile, we are left with the fact that you consider it more likely that your God has preprogrammed or personally dabbled every single bacterial adaptation in the history of life than that he gave them the means to make their own decisions.