Extended Evolutionary Synthesis; another view (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Saturday, August 08, 2015, 23:34 (3176 days ago) @ David Turell


> > dhw: Once again, David, thank you for a fascinating article.
> 
> Thank you. 
> > 
> > dhw: “But the signals are not the agents. There are living agents that use signals and generate signals to transport meaning and content and information.” 
> > 
> > If we bear in mind that Shapiro, a bacterial geneticist, firmly believes that bacteria are sentient, cognitive, intelligent beings, the answer to your question, Tony, might be that all organisms are possessed of an intelligence different from ours. They have their own ways of thinking and communicating.....I only have a problem if folk of all creeds insist that other organisms, apart from ourselves and to a lesser degree some of our fellow animals, are mere automatons.
> 
>David: But I will continue to make the point: from outside the organism one cannot tell the difference between some type of mental action or automatism. I have my choice.-I don't doubt that organisms have intelligence. I doubt the degree of that intelligence. Some intelligence is obviously needed for survival, but interspecies communication, planning, and coordination all take a level of communication that I've seen no evidence for.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.