bacterial (cellular) intelligence shown to be DNA driven (Animals)

by dhw, Wednesday, December 06, 2017, 13:13 (2331 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Cells can be programmed to learn from experience. That is exactly what the immune system cells do!

“Programmed to learn” can only denote that they have been given the MEANS of learning. Or do you think that 3.8 billion years ago your God provided the first cells with programmes to deal with every new experience for the rest of time? In that case they learn nothing, but merely obey instructions. (Dabbling does not constitute preprogramming.) Which of the two explanations do you accept?

dhw: If your God exists, he must be the source of cellular intelligence. If he doesn’t, the source can only be chance or some form of panpsychism. The evidence for ANY of these hypotheses is not available in science.

DAVID: The evidence is not yet available, but the fact still remains that cells can be programmed to act intelligentluy or they are intelligent. I'm on one side, you are on the other, and you expect cells to evolve to develop intelligence on their own from the first life forms.

My hypothesis is that the first cells do not “develop” intelligence – they are ALREADY intelligent (possibly thanks to your God), but their intelligence is limited. As they combine with one another, they not only share intelligences (all organisms are individual) but they also learn from experience to produce different ways of surviving and improving. In that sense, yes, they “develop”. I agree that the evidence is not yet available.