Defining sentient cells: Cell receptors (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, April 11, 2018, 12:52 (2206 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: If a particular stimulus to a bacterium results in a series of molecular reactions leading to a molecular response, as research shows, it must be inferred that it is automatic. I'll stick to that interpretation as a strong inference.
dhw: Of course you will. And you will ignore any research which suggests that bacteria are capable of autonomous self-modification, cooperation, problem-solving, decision-making and any other attribute that we associate with intelligence, even though you admit that you have no way of distinguishing between automatic and autonomously intelligent behaviour.
DAVID: But neither can your favorite scientists. They have a right to their assumptions which have equal validity to mine.

Thank you. In that case, please stop stating that they are automatons, as it were a scientific fact. It is a purely subjective option.

DAVID: Your faith in cell intelligence implies there must be decision making. Research clearly shows decisions are not made, but are automatic actions programmed in the molecular reactions.

And there you go again! There are umpteen websites on the subject of “How do cells make decisions?” Here is the first one on the long list:

How Do Cells Make Decisions: Engineering Micro- and ...
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jo/2010/363106

Abstract
Cell migration contributes to cancer metastasis and involves cell adhesion to the extracellular matrix (ECM), force generation through the cell's cytoskeletal, and finally cell detachment. Both adhesive cues from the ECM and soluble cues from neighbouring cells and tissue trigger intracellular signalling pathways that are essential for cell migration. While the machinery of many signalling pathways is relatively well understood, how hierarchies of different and conflicting signals are established is a new area of cellular cancer research. We examine the recent advances in microfabrication, microfluidics, and nanotechnology that can be utilized to engineer micro- and nanoscaled cellular environments. Controlling both adhesive and soluble cues for migration may allow us to decipher how cells become motile, choose the direction for migration, and how oncogenic transformations influences these decision-making processes.(My bold)

You and others may tell us the decision-making processes are all automatic, but as you so rightly say over and over again, nobody can tell the difference, and both views have equal validity.