Biological complexity: feedback loops are vital (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, September 20, 2019, 08:59 (1680 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Without precise controls of chemical levels, life cannot survive. There are chemical cycles which produce necessary outputs and there are feedback controls which are also loops and control outputs when too low or too high. They are fully automatic and have to be:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/math-reveals-the-secrets-of-cells-feedback-circuitry-201...

DAVID: Without these control loops, homeostasis in life is impossible, as is life itself. This research supports my contention that most bacterial and cellular responses are automatic or tightly controlled. So much for free-thinking and free-acting bacteria or cells.

Of course life would be impossible without homeostasis, and of course most bacterial and cellular responses are automatic and tightly controlled, just as most of our own responses are automatic and tightly controlled. If they weren’t, we too would drop dead any second. The key word in your comment is “most”. Cellular intelligence manifests itself in the responses that are not automatic! Those scientists who support the concept have observed bacteria solving new problems. Yes, the solutions always involve chemical processes – in us as in them – but the information demanding new actions has to be processed first, and then decisions have to be taken in order to change the existing structure/behaviour of the cell(s)/bacteria. You have always agreed that the decision-making process shows intelligence, but you attribute that to your God’s preprogramming, though allowing for a 50/50 chance that “my” scientists might be right. Please stop pretending that automatic chemical responses in bacteria prove they are not intelligent and have been preprogrammed by your God. But thank you for your all-important “most”. It’s the rest that demonstrate intelligence.