Cellular intelligence: Microphenomenology and the realities of being.
Progress in biophysics and molecular biology December 1, 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2017.08.012 via PubMed
Summary
Eastern traditions view life holistically, emphasizing health and healing as expressions of a spiritual principle, while Western reductionist science models living processes as digital computer systems. The argument here is that cognition, response, and decision-making in living cells go beyond such modeling. Microscopic studies of shell-building amoebae and the alga Antithamnion reveal a level of cellular intelligence unrecognized by science and not amenable to computer analysis.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Cellular intelligence Computation Decision-making Evolution Microphenomenology |
| Key finding | Cellular cognition and decision-making in organisms like shell-building amoebae and Antithamnion demonstrate a form of intelligence that cannot be modeled by digital computers. |
Abstract
Traditions of Eastern thought conceptualised life in a holistic sense, emphasising the processes of maintaining health and conquering sickness as manifestations of an essentially spiritual principle that was of overriding importance in the conduct of living. Western science, which drove the overriding and partial eclipse of Eastern traditions, became founded on a reductionist quest for ultimate realities which, in the modern scientific world, has embraced the notion that every living process can be successfully modelled by a digital computer system. It is argued here that the essential processes of cognition, response and decision-making inherent in living cells transcend conventional modelling, and microscopic studies of organisms like the shell-building amoebae and the rhodophyte alga Antithamnion reveal a level of cellular intelligence that is unrecognized by science and is not amenable to computer analysis.