Innovation and Speciation (Evolution)

by dhw, Friday, May 06, 2011, 13:51 (4949 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

As an alternative to blind chance and divine pre-programming, I have suggested that cells may have a form of intelligence which creates the innovations that cause speciation.-TONY: Where it does not fit is in explaining adaptation that is not a direct response to an external stimulus. (Hence the reason for the critical identification of the difference between adaptation and invention)-By definition, adaptation entails changing to fit in with new situations/conditions/ environments ... in other words it IS a direct response to external stimuli. If there are none, we have invention. I'm suggesting that BOTH processes may be the result of intelligent cells making changes. As things stand, we don't actually know whether innovation comes about independently of environmental changes. The Cambrian Explosion suggests a connection (an increase in oxygen?) but it makes no difference either way. If some cells can communicate and combine in order to adapt (while others can't, and the species becomes extinct), some may also do so in order to innovate. After all, the community of cells that we call the human brain also varies in intelligence and inventiveness. If people can put their faith in blind chance (i.e. random mutations) to create something new, or in the intelligence of an unknown, unknowable and inexplicable divine power, why not in the intelligence of the cells themselves?