More Miscellany (General)

by David Turell , Sunday, April 28, 2024, 15:53 (14 days ago) @ dhw

A new consciousness declaration

dhw: Thank you for providing yet more evidence for Shapiro’s theory that cells gather information, respond to changes in conditions, and make decisions based on what is best for their survival.

DAVID: No question, cells adapt but only at a local level, not speciation.

dhw: Another authoritative statement of opinion.

Why are you afraid of opinions? You know my view, and I know yours.

Bioluminescence

dhw: Why do you think bioluminescence for eyeless organisms was essential to the fulfilment of your God’s sole purpose of producing us and our food?

DAVID: My God wished to produce an Earth filled with diverse life forms for our use.

dhw: I’m not sure what use we make of these organisms, but of course we are still left with the conundrum of why he would have produced and culled 99.9 out of 100 species that were manifestly not for our use, since today’s bush of life is descended from only 0.1% of past species.

Same confused math, not worth further discussion. Stop splitting evolution into two unrelated parts!!!

Importance of Microbiome (now back to boredom and theodicy)

DAVID: God does not get bored, but your overly humanized form does. When will you learn how to think about a possibly real God?

dhw: Your theory was that your God allowed human evil and created murderous bugs (for which he is to be blamed) in order to avoid boredom – his and ours. Now, with your astonishing first-hand knowledge of how God thinks and feels, you dismiss your own theory. When will you learn that nobody can learn how to think about a possibly real God, but if you propose certain ideas one week and then propose the opposite the following week, it becomes more and more difficult to take any of your ideas seriously. I still vividly remember your certainty that your God enjoys creating, is interested in his creations, and has thought patterns and emotions like our own. When you proposed your boredom theory, it was nicely consistent with your earlier beliefs. But suddenly out they all go again.

DAVID: God is not human. Addendum: All those human qualities I and you listed above are covered just below.

dhw: I never said he was.

DAVID: Does He have emotions like ours is questionable. Religions claim He loves us, but is that human wishful thinking? I have never been 'certain' about God's personal attributes you listed. Perhaps it is my human wishes that He be that way.

dhw; You were once certain he enjoyed creating and was interested in his creations, but apparently you have never been certain. You are certain that he is omnipotent, omniscient, all-good, can’t get bored, is selfless and acts without self-interest etc. In fact, you are certain about anything that supports your wishes, and you are certain in your rejection of anything that contradicts them.

That is my right as an individual thinker.

The role of the interstitium

QUOTE: "Understanding how the interstitium works will define more of the rules about how the trillions of cells in the human body communicate across vast distances to create the exquisitely complex system that is the body. How these things all add up are vast scientific questions that will require a meticulously reductive approach as well as cultivation of a beginner’s mind.”

dhw: The new articles were too technical for me to grasp, but this paragraph leapt out at me. These vast communities perform different functions, but communicate with one another to create a single community of communities. Awesome. And I love the emphasis on the need for a reductive approach and a beginner’s mind. The logical outcome of a reductive approach would seem to be just how each individual cell plays its part, and perhaps the beginner’s mind will find that each cell actually knows what it’s doing. But I acknowledge that you would expect the approach to lead to the conclusion that all cells are robots obeying your God’s instructions.

DAVID: In DNA there are instructions, but as these articles show there are other levels of communication constantly in action.

dhw; All of which reinforce the image of a vast community of communities cooperating to perform existing functions and to respond to new requirements. It is certainly not unreasonable to suggest that they know what they’re doing.

"Know" in a mental sense? Please define.