"You'd have to explain that one..."
I was talking about your computer. She would die very quickly if her fan became damaged or diseased and failed to regulate her body temperature. Likewise, your car engine...
"People regulate their own temperature... they actually DONT require constant temperatures."
If their fan systems fail, they are done...
"I just know every cell exhibits more intelligence than anything we've made by far."
Well, I don't know what you know. I know that I expect millions of years of evolution to have produced cellular life and multi-cellular life somewhat suited to the environment. We agree that Nature weeds out the unsuitable, don't we? That is awesome, all right. But "intelligence" is controversial even in regards to human populations and ethnicity. I see no purpose in reducing the word to virtual meaninglessness by having it refer to virtually anything that reacts or responds to environmental stimuli in any way, shape, or form. It is common (and meaningful, I submit) to refer to greater and lesser degrees of intelligence and to use these concepts to devise and implement better means and methods of addressing human problems and concerns. But I am not picking up that your concept of intelligence admits of any degree or of any distinction? I have not heard you evaluate how dumb some cells are compared to how expert others are? Yet we know that intelligence (among humans, at least) admits of extensive degrees amounting to polar opposites. So is this "cell intelligence" that you believe in, a new and special type of intelligence that is uniform and (as someone else said) "EXPERT" at all times??
Nobody disagrees that living creatures are evolving and adapting to their environment along an information continuum that involves both storage and processing and that also includes interaction with the environment. If this is to be a default definition of "intelligence" then scientists and philosophers have wasted millions of hours in useless argument, haven't they? Because what is there to argue if EVERYTHING is intelligent and nothing is unintelligent?? If you told me that some cells were intelligent and some were not I would have something to go by; but if "intelligence" is a cosmic default for you, then there can be no evidence that would invalidate your opinion.
So there it stands. I am just as awed by evolution and adaptation as you are; but somehow it appears that I find no necessity to attach the useful word "intelligence" to the millions of creatures who struggle to survive--just as I am careful not to insult the 99% of creatures who have gone extinct (along with all their myriad cells) as lacking in intelligence. In neither case do I find the word expressive or indicative. And you have shown, I think, that there is a way to use the word that includes everything that pointedly lacks a brain--so the discussion is very much a public swim where even eggs and sperm get to luxuriate in their own lanes... |
