Cellular intelligence (Evolution)

by David Turell , Tuesday, February 22, 2022, 16:15 (1003 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: That does not explain our giant, capable brain arriving so far in advance of ts massive use today.

dhw:... Since you keep coming back to the brain, I can only repeat that of course the sapiens jump occurred in advance of its use today, just as all evolutionary changes occurred in advance of their future! But you want your God to operate on the brain before there is any need for its expansion, whereas I propose that it would have expanded (just like speciation) IN RESPONSE to new requirements, and not in anticipation of them.

So we are back to future design without a designing mind, a blank. How do simple cells do it?

DAVID: Of course oxygen had to come first. It doesn't explain the Cambrian gap, just allowed it to appear. You look at necessary conditions in a strange way. Conditions are not biological evolution but can be only antecedent requirement as God designs.

dhw: Thank you for your continued agreement that speciation – whether designed by your God or not - does not take place in anticipation of changing conditions but in response to them. Biological evolution is the process by which organisms adapt to new conditions or use them to create new methods of survival.

Of course anticipation. Back to whales. No deep diving unless body prepared to do so.

Immunity system explaining B cells.

DAVID: I started in college biochemistry being taught that biochemical reactions were automatic. Same in Med school, and ID supports my belief.

dhw: As I keep pointing out, most reactions, once established, will have to be automatic, to preserve the organism’s identity. Your teachers, a lifetime ago, could only teach you what is there now, not how it came to be there. Perhaps they would not have agreed with you that your God designed each one. And did they tell you that God provided cells with a list of instructions on how to deal with all illnesses for the rest of life’s history? So why do we need doctors? Because of your God's inadequacies, or because cellular intelligence sometimes can't cope alone? Furthermore, intelligence will only be needed if conditions change – for instance, an attack by a new virus. Then the cells will have to absorb and process the new information, communicate and cooperate in devising a defence against the intruder. Some folk would say these actions indicate intelligence. Many of us will die, though, which suggests that there is no list of instructions already available to all cells.

Most of us don't die because of the cells acting on their God-given information can respond to all infections, but I admit some unsuccessfully.

How genes are read and produced

QUOTE:. "The process is universal, affecting every cell and every mRNA molecule in the body," (DAVID’s bold)

DAVID: totally automatic and precisely controlled. Irreducibly complex, which means designed. This process is in every cell in our bodies, acting at necessarily high speed.
And under “Cell death controls”:
DAVID: the need for such precise controls implies it has to be a designed mechanism, as it is irreducibly complex.

dhw: As above. If you want to discuss cellular intelligence, you need to discuss those circumstances in which it is demonstrated, not those which have to work automatically.

The implication is all is automatic.

Magic embryology

QUOTE: Embryonic stem cells and other pluripotent cells divide rapidly and have the capacity to become nearly any cell type in the body.

dhw: Whenever you post an article about stem cells, I get the same impression that these are absolutely key to our understanding of how evolution works. They must certainly play a huge role in the ability of cells to form new combinations, and hence new organs and new species. And just to reassure you, David, this suggestion does not exclude your God who, if he exists, would certainly have been the designer.

In embryology it is apparent stem cells follow in strict instructions. Why can 't you recognize all cells do?