Cellular intelligence (Evolution)

by dhw, Thursday, February 24, 2022, 11:47 (1001 days ago) @ David Turell

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.

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

Even if you ridicule the possibility that your God – who enjoys creating and is interested in his creations – might find a free-for-all more interesting than a puppet show, it does not alter the fact that you have also ridiculed your own theory as “facetious”.

Immunity system explaining B cells.

dhw: 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.

DAVID: God never appeared in Med school.

Thank you. I would have been very surprised if your teachers had confirmed your theory about God issuing instructions etc.

How genes are read and produced

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.

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

I’d be very happy with that statement if I didn’t know that by “respond intelligently” you mean they merely obeyed your God’s instructions as issued 3.8 billion years ago, or as somehow inserted ad hoc when new problems arise. See below:

Magic embryology

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.

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

If you meant they may have been designed to use their autonomous intelligence for the purpose of solving problems, and adapting to or exploiting new conditions, we could shake hands, but of course you dismiss that possibility.