New Miscellany Part 2: zombies, fine-tuning, symbiosis (General)

by David Turell , Wednesday, April 23, 2025, 18:05 (3 days ago) @ dhw

Zombification

DAVID: Trial and error to create such a mechanism is not a logical route. The ants must learn to attach themselves and attack the host's brains. A two-step process in which the first step alone serves no purpose.

dhw: That makes them even cleverer than I had supposed. Do you believe your God preprogrammed this strategy 3.8 billion years ago, or suddenly decided that zombification would be a great help to us humans (his sole purpose) and popped in to give zombification courses to all his potential parasites.? Please answer.

Designed parts of a necessary ecosystem.

Possible alien life

DAVID: Yes, the Earth is fine-tuned for life, but as the universe is life-friendly any life- welcoming area within it can have life.

dhw: All you’re saying is that any area that is fine-tuned for life can have life. That does not mean the whole universe is fine-tuned for life. Why are you dragging this out?

A nuanced difference: potentially any object can modify itself like Earth did to add life.

Clever corvids

QUOTE: "Crows are the first non-human animals to demonstrate these abilities, which were once thought to be uniquely human.”

dhw: We always think of intelligence in terms of what matters to us, but many humans simply cannot conceive of the possibility that every living form, all the way down to single cells, must have some form of intelligence to enable it to survive.

Single cells follow intelligent instructions.