Defining sentient cells: Cell receptors (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, April 19, 2018, 12:09 (2198 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: (under “Biological complexity”): The papers have been full of this discovery, as a possible method of solving the enormous problems plastic has created. I read one comment to the effect that evolution would probably have created the same improvement, but it would have taken far longer. I agree with you that this is no accident. It is living proof of the manner in which bacteria adjust themselves to new environments and new opportunities. I do not believe that 3.8 billion years ago they were preprogrammed to eat plastic, or that your God has come along to teach them. Do you?

DAVID: No I don't. A shift in one amino acid does the trick. Bacteria have thousands of enzymes in which this could happen. Nylonase is one recent example.

If they can produce thousands of enzymes, how do they know which ones to produce in any given situation? Do you think they are not aware of the different conditions and opportunities, and the necessary choices are made for them without them even knowing? When we produce antibiotics, and bacteria die by the millions before finding their own solution, what happened to their automatic mechanism for selecting the appropriate “shift”?

xxx

dhw: Here are some examples of bacterial intelligence listed on Wikipedia. You will say they are automatic, and others will say they are evidence of intelligence. (My bold)
Microbial intelligence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_intelligence
[…]
DAVID: All of which can be automatic.
dhw: As predicted above. And as you so rightly said, your opinion is no more valid than that of the scientists who say the examples (as listed under “Microbial intelligence”) are the product of intelligence. And so you cannot claim that science supports your rejection of my hypothesis that cellular intelligence might be a driving force behind evolution.
DAVID: I will stick to my observation that every reaction which is elucidated turns out to show automaticity.

It is not an observation; it is an opinion. As you very well know, other scientists have observed reactions and “elucidated” them as manifestations of intelligence.