The biochemistry of cell adhesion and communication (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, December 21, 2015, 16:03 (3042 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: It is the communal activity that provides the analogy to how multicellular organs may have been formed in the first place: through the intelligent cooperation of cells.-We are totally apart. The intelligent cooperation comes from the information implanted into them from the beginning of life.
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> dhw: You keep ignoring my response to the kidney argument, so let me repeat it: “...if single cells are intelligent, you don't have to be a genius to work out that cell communities must be intelligent too. HOWEVER, as I have said repeatedly, once an organ has been invented, of course the cells will perform their allotted duties, just as ants do in their community. (Active, inventive intelligence would only be required when new situations arose.)”-Still very apart. Cells are cells. Single-celled bacteria do less complex work in living on their own than do kidney cells working for me. If my kidney cells can work automatically at that high level of complexity, then it is logical that bacteria work automatically at their lower level of complexity.-> DAVID: Of course bacteria are just like described above. Old ground. I have my own interpretation of Shapiro's findings. 
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> dhw:May I ask what other attributes you would add to Shapiro's list before you would describe an organism as “intelligent”? -Their intelligent responses are all automatic.
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> DAVID: This is where my opinion comes from. My knowledge that single cells in complex organisms like humans do much more automatically than bacteria do as independent organisms. So to me bacteria work automatically...
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> dhw: Of course single cells in the kidney do much more automatically than bacteria do as independent organisms. They have their role in a fixed community. But if bacteria are LESS automatic than kidney cells, how does that lead to the conclusion that bacteria work automatically?-Covered above.
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> DAVID: ...and no one can tell whether Shapiro or I am correct as to automatic or independent mechanisms control their lives.
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> dhw: That is true. You are a bacterial determinist and a human compatibilist, and you have every right to ignore the findings of these eminent experts whom you admire so much.-Thank you. I do admire them.