Natures wonders: ants and other insects farm (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, May 01, 2020, 21:45 (1665 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: As I've written elsewhere today, the design you accept which keeps you agnostic, logically requires a very powerful mind.

dhw: Of course if God exists, he has a powerful mind. How does that make dabbling less concrete than inventing autonomous intelligence?

Same response. Obviously I don't really know how God controls or manufactures evolution.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Under "bacterial memory":

DAVID: Usual twist. The article shows exactly what happens physically in the ant membranes, a form of chemical memory, nothing more.

dhw: There are only two ways you can study any living being: 1) the material workings, and 2) the behavioural. How do you know that human memory, storage of information, communication, ability to change behaviour are not “nothing more” than chemical?

DAVID: At the basis they are chemical also, but the use of charged ions is directed into complex networks of axons and changeable dendrites to create human n=mental capacities. The bacterial memory is extremely simple arrangement of ions.

dhw: So bacterial intelligence is not as advanced as human intelligence. I think most of us can accept that.

DAVID: Good.

dhw: Thank you for agreeing that bacterial intelligence is not as advanced as human intelligence. This can only mean that you have agreed that bacteria are intelligent. Progress at last!

Your view of 'intelligence' is never mine. I'm just trying to be agreeable

xxxxxxxxxx

Under "Negative memory controls"
QUOTE: "'Our findings in worms are a good starting point for further research into the cognitive functions of other animals. We know that Neuromedin U is also found in many other organisms and in the human brain," says Professor Liliane Schoofs. "A good knowledge of these basic mechanisms is, therefore, crucial to better understand the complex processes in the human brain.'"

DAVID:It seems all brains have the same basic properties, but vary greatly in thought capacity as the human brain shows. Communication by ion electric currents is basic to brain processes, but the neurons are also influenced by many different neuropeptides.

dhw: Both of the above posts emphasize the material sources of cognition, as indeed do you with your constant references to the thought capacity of the human brain. And all the articles seem to suggest that other life forms have a degree of cognition.

DAVID: They do. Animals and plants must have protective sensors to recognize problems.

dhw: As do we. The cognitive part is how they use these sensors to solve the problems – as do we. More progress: animals and plants have their own forms of cognition, memory, communication, information-processing, decision-making etc. – all elements of what we call intelligence.

And I view these sensors as automatic protections, as usual.