Cellular intelligence: Animal Algorithms reviewed (Evolution)

by dhw, Friday, November 19, 2021, 08:34 (1098 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: You always illustrate your belief in automaticity by referring to established systems. It is the solving of new problems and the ORIGIN of established systems that demonstrate intelligence. I will continue to point this out whenever you try to oppose the theory with your automatic examples.

DAVID: Yes, God's intelligence at work.

dhw: As above, then, all problems solved by direct divine dabbling or a divine 3.8-billion-year-old programme for all problems, life forms etc. to cover the rest of life’s history. […].

DAVID: The information required to run the new processes of new forms or originating life itself has a source. Mine is God.

dhw: The question whether cells are intelligent or not has nothing to do with the source of life, and whatever may be the information required to design new forms or to solve problems, it has to be processed, passed on to the rest of the body (= communication), and ultimately used in the formation of a decision. Processing information, communication, decision-making are all characteristics of what we call intelligence. When machines do such work, we call it artificial intelligence. When cells and organisms do it, we could call it natural intelligence. We don’t/can’t know the source of that intelligence, but I would certainly regard your God as being just as feasible as a lucky combination of materials.

DAVID: The issue is really not intelligence, but the source of new information to create new species. Where did the information for the Cambrian explosion come from?

Of course the issue is intelligence. I don’t know why you have to muddy the waters with the vague word “information”. Nobody knows the cause of the Cambrian Explosion, but it is not unreasonable to suppose that there was some kind of major change in conditions (perhaps an increase in oxygen). We know for a fact that some life forms are able to adapt to new conditions by making minor changes to themselves. This means their cell communities are capable of engineering their own mutations. The theory of cellular intelligence proposes that these same cell communities are also able to make major changes to themselves, resulting in what we call innovations – and hence the origin of new species. You know all this, and the issue is whether cells are intelligent or not.