LUCA latest: Shapiro redux (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, July 07, 2023, 17:33 (515 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: Once more my thanks for posting such material. Brilliant essay! It speaks for itself, of course, but it should be mentioned that the two “giants” Shapiro mentions – Margulis and McClintock – were, like himself, firm believers in cellular intelligence. I’ve picked out one quote from your text and two from the complete essay:

“cells can cut and splice their own DNA molecules, a capability that I call ‘natural genetic engineering’”.

This autonomy lies at the heart of Shapiro’s whole theory. But he does not tell us how they acquired the ability – he is concerned with the way evolution works, and not with the origin of the mechanisms that make it work. Just like Darwin (whose random mutations he convincingly debunks), he offers a theory which need not offend any religious believer.

“In other words, within a small number of generations, descendants of the initial hybrid constitute a newly evolved species with novel adaptive characters and reproductive isolation.”

This is a major point in the discussion of the time available for species to evolve. ID-ers like to emphasize how long it would take for random mutations to accumulate into new species. But if we substitute a non-random process by which cells respond to environmental change by engineering their own mutations, it is generations that matter, not years.

“Those obligations include reorienting our studies of adaptive variation towards learning how deeply genome change is integrated with biocognitive sensory responses.”

Again, this lies at the heart of his theory: cells are cognitive beings which engineer the “adaptive variations” that lead to speciation.

Just to remind the reader, all of Shapiro's studies were on the bacterian ability to edit their own DNA. Animals and plants have adaptive abilities, much short of actual speciation. Thanks for adding the new quotes.