David's theory of evolution: James A. Shapiro's view (Evolution)

by David Turell , Thursday, January 23, 2020, 22:36 (1764 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: There are two ways to explain the gaps in the fossil record: 1) over thousands of millions of years, you can hardly expect a complete record, but we agree that the Cambrian suggests big jumps, and so 2) the concept of intelligent cells would explain how organisms can both adapt to and exploit new conditions.

DAVID: The concept without mental activity is a dead end.

dhw: The concept of “intelligent” cells by definition entails mental activity! We know that cells are sentient, process information, communicate and make decisions. Some renowned scientists regard these attributes as proof of “mental activity”. That is the basis of the theory!

DAVID: What Shapiro found is that free-living bacteria, responsible fro their own welfare can manage some DNA alterations without becoming a new species. That is a limited ability which probably was not transmitted to multicellular organisms when they appeared in their own complex forms, as we see no evidence of it in our research. There is no proof single-celled organisms 'know' what they are doing. That are seen only as acting with intelligence, which appearance can easily be explained as following automatic instructions.

dhw: No need to repeat all this. You asked about the gaps and I gave you an answer. Shapiro’s theory (not proven) is that cells are intelligent and are responsible for evolutionary novelties, and I suggest that this theory explains the gaps. Your theory (not proven) is that the cells were all preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago or dabbled with.

DAVID: And I don't accept the theory as even possible. The only 'mental' activity we see is in neurons.

dhw: You keep saying that the actions appear to be intelligent (= mentally active), there is a 50/50 chance that they are/are not, but it is not possible that they are!

The 50/50, I will remind, is only the odds of which of us is correct. I'm sure 99% I am correct. Appearing to act intelligently does not mean any cellular thinking is occurring.