Cellular intelligence (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, February 23, 2022, 15:48 (1002 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: So you still have your God preplanning deep diving 3.8 billion years ago, or popping in to operate, though when asked if that was the case, you described the question as “facetious”. You accept autonomous adaptation to new conditions, but reject the possibility that the same autonomous mechanism might also be capable of major changes leading to the innovations that make for speciation. Instead you opt rigidly for the “facetious” alternatives.

You sticking to your facetious God who hands off design to others.

Immunity system explaining B cells.

DAVID: 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.

dhw: I can’t follow your sentence structure, but I shall still presume that your teachers did not discuss the origins of all the working systems, and did not inform you that God had provided all the cells with instructions to cope with all the problems thrown up by his designs.

God never appeared in Med school

How genes are read and produced

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.

DAVID: The implication is all is automatic.

dhw: Which you say means obeying your God's instructions. Some scientists say the implication is that cells have autonomous intelligence which enables them to solve new problems or exploit new conditions.

Of course God designed cells to respond intelligently. If they didn't life would end.

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. […]

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

dhw: Why can’t you recognize that some cells absorb and process information, communicate with other cells, and take decisions in order to cope with new conditions, and these qualities are hallmarks of intelligence? As for stem cells, my focus is entirely on the fact that they can change their identity, which is obviously a crucial factor for speciation, in which one form changes into another.

All you describe is correct as the cells are designed to act exactly that way.