Natures wonders: fungus changes ants moves with new climate (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, May 30, 2018, 11:44 (2367 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: "It's hard to imagine how a fungus with no brain could figure this all out, but that's the power of evolution. And it goes further: In June in temperate climes, the forest is still full of both twigs and leaves, yet the fungus directs zombie ants to lock onto twigs exclusively. And in the Amazon, where it’s lush all year round, they only ever lock onto leaves. “How in the name of ... whoever ... does the fungus inside the body know what the difference between the leaf and the twig is?” Hughes asks. It always has both options, yet only ever “chooses” one—the best strategy for its particular surroundings."

I don’t know what he means by the “power of evolution”. This amazing ability shows the power of intelligence, and provides yet more evidence that organisms do not need a brain to act intelligently. Perhaps David will say it is evidence of his God programming fungi 3.8 billion years ago, or personally giving them instructions (otherwise, life would not have survived long enough for God to produce the brain of Homo sapiens). But I would suggest that such wonders provide evidence that cells/cellular communities of all kinds have autonomous means (perhaps provided by a God) of working out their own designs and methods of survival.