New Miscellany Parts 1 &:2: evolution, eco, intelligence. (General)

by David Turell , Friday, May 02, 2025, 20:30 (15 hours, 18 minutes ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Wow: among our birds are four living dinosaurs according to your weird form of evolution.

dhw: What are you talking about? Four species of dinosaur which survived the Chixculub extinction were the ancestors of the birds that exist today. 696 species did not survive and produced no descendants. This example supports the generally accepted belief that 99.9% of species went extinct, and all living species are descendants of the 0.1% surviving, as you have agreed. Why do you go on trying to deny the obvious, which you yourself have confirmed?

The four dinosaur-bird grand-dads went extinct, leaving behind four starts for birds. Yes or no?

Zombification

dhw: Why do you constantly forget that the obvious fact that ecosystems support life does not support your absurd theory that every ecosystem was specially designed to support humans, though for 3.X billion years, humans were not around.

Doesn't evolution reach the future? Don't you think the designer planned for future humans?

dhw: The gruesome zombie strategy raises another issue of major importance to anyone interested in the nature of a possible God. If you insist that he designed every species and every strategy, what facet of his nature would you say is revealed by the invention of carnivorousness: the deliberate design of species which can only survive by killing and eating other life forms?

Unfortunately all life needs constant new energy input. And new survival strategies.

Loss of ants

QUOTE: It is easy to forget how important ants are in the majority of terrestrial ecosystems. They're often referred to as ecosystem engineers because they have such profound effects on the ecosystems they live in.

dhw: Their ingenuity, highly sophisticated strategies and social structures, and ability to solve problems also demonstrate astonishing intelligence.

DAVID: ecosystems maintain life. Every organism has its place.

dhw: And for billions of years, organisms did this in the absence of human beings, which is why it is nonsense to claim that they were all specially designed for our use.

BUT, we are here using them all.

Mind and cosmos

QUOTES: Intelligence may exist and evolve on its own, without emerging within living organisms.

“Eventually, I came to believe that intelligence is not a byproduct of the brain, but a fundamental property of the universe—a kind of informational ether that certain structures, like the brain or an AI model, can tap into.'” (dhw’s bold)

DAVID: In NDE's the consciousness appears to be separate from the brain.

dhw: The idea that intelligence is an immaterial “ fundamental property of the universe” begs the question of whether the universe would exist if it wasn’t for all its materials. That is one of the great mysteries presented by the God theory: how could consciousness exist on its own without a source? And what would it be conscious of, if nothing else existed? And what is meant by “tapping into” a property outside the brain? Are all our thoughts contained in an outside something or the other, and our non-thinking brain somehow calls on the thoughts to enter it?

dhw: I felt these questions were simply glossed over by the author and ignored by you.

DAVID: In NDE's consciousness seems to separate from a non-functioning brain, and be functioning.

dhw: You keep repeating this, and I keep agreeing. But I am pointing out that this does not normally entail the theory we are discussing, which is that consciousness exists as a fundamental property of the universe, as opposed to the individual consciousness apparently displayed during NDEs. It’s a pity you aren’t willing to think about the questions I’ve asked above in relation to the major issues ignored by the article.

My comment is complete! We cannot go further. vanLommel thinks the brain receives consciousness! We are left with evidence of a functioning consciousness while the brain is inoperative!