More Denton: Another review of Denton's new book (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, May 30, 2016, 14:59 (2889 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Natural selection is affected by thinking animals like us, and to a less extent by lesser animals. Not in plants.
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> dhw:According to you there are no thinking animals “like us”, and we arrived billions of years after natural selection began. Nobody knows the extent to which “lesser” organisms think, but it is not unreasonable to assume that “lesser” organisms are able to recognize relationships that are beneficial to them.-Of course they do.
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> dhw: Why should cells in communities be able to think for themselves and communicate with one another, but single cells can't?
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> DAVID: Because single cells have automatic functions, while multicellulars have specialized networks of cells that allow thought.
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> dhw: Multicellulars consist of single cells working together! All organisms, unicellular and multicellular, have automatic functions, but nobody knows to what extent single cells can think (which does not mean think "like us").-We are at the same point we keep circling back to. Nobody 'knows' because they cannot know. Automaticity in a single cell can simply be intelligently planned.