Thread: Do Cells Think - And Is This What They Sound Like?

Originally Posted by A Roxxor

Look at ants.

That's a good point.

Originally Posted by A Roxxor

I think you've missed the point of science.

Not at all. Acceptance and investigation are not synonymous. After all this time, after all our searching, the origin of consciousness is still a mystery, is it not? There are countless theories out there, true, but has one actually gained acceptance? I've never even come close to implying that anybody that just comes up with a theory should automatically have said theory accepted as truth. I think that someone actually dives in and tries to find out such things, is what's important. Particularly, when there are observable parallels that, at face value, could appear to be substantial.

Originally Posted by A Roxxor

What do you mean "To what extent?"?

Sorry. I mean "with what level of complexity?".

Originally Posted by A Roxxor

They can't actively respond to their environment because they don't have the ability of foresight or thinking ahead. They can only react to the now.

Hmm. That's true, I think.

Originally Posted by Xei

That sounds just like a mathematical model to me. I think what makes an organism 'intelligent' is if there is some sort of information processing unit which gathers all inputs together and makes desicions based on the sum of those outputs. There is no such system in single celled organisms; they are just lumps of matter shaped by an entirely Darwinian process.

Fair enough. Roxxor's ant example was actually pretty pertinent. I remember reading about army ants, and how a colony was often referred to as a single-organism. It does say a lot about how something is only as good as the sum of its parts, and how, without the whole, even an individual "cell" (part) is pretty much useless. It's hard for me to imagine an organism as (relatively) complex as an ant without some degree of sentience, especially after seeing even the individuals do amazing things, on their own, but I can at least understand why the conclusion is that they don't.

Originally Posted by Xei

And of course, if a single celled organism were to ever show itself to be more than the above, then yes, that would warrant a great deal of investigation; but you have to observe it happening first, which has not happened to my knowledge.

I think that all boils down to, again, how complex the actions of single-celled organisms actually are. Just the fact that they do the things listed is (IMHO) cause to ponder over whether or not they are somehow sentient. If I had the means, personally, it would probably be something I would try to investigate myself. BUT, I do understand how inefficient it would be, if the scientific community took the time and resources to entertain every interesting idea. That much, I can't argue with.

Originally Posted by Xei

I do think that consciousness is a great mystery, but I don't think that any of this is a part of it...

Fair enough.

[Edit:

Originally Posted by A Roxxor

Well, consciousness is also dependent on memory. If you can't think back, then you can't think ahead, so you can't make decisions, and cannot be conscious.

But, then, how does evolution happen? Information is stored and carried, even in single-celled organisms, to some degree. Of course, it's not on our level, but it galvanizes adaptation, just as ours does, no? Just very, very simplistically, and over a longer period of time?