MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

This article seemed particularly germane to some of the discussions here lately.

https://aeon.co/essays/the-study-of-the ... ket-newtab

Thanks for that link.

That is nice

You're welcome. It seemed to articulate many of the same questions that have arisen in this forum about the "apparently purposeful" behavior of the simplest organism on earth. The author seems to imply that the fundamental building blocks of cognition, recognition, evaluation, and response, may be part and parcel of all living organisms from the very beginnings of life on this planet. And that is a staggering concept both intellectually and philosophically.

Next up, do protists have free will?

FWIW, research shows that we humans make up our minds at a subconscious level before consciously "deciding."

The question then should be, do humans really have free will? Probably in about the same way as protists...

A thought-provoking article.

Thank you for the link, Harold

… somehow I missed your post yesterday

MichaelG.

Thank you, Harold for a great article link. For me it gave loose overviews of a diverse number of streams of research..and historical and rather contemporary workers opinions on how to view the direction of their fields of study.

But I am puzzled that the articles author ' thinks it outrageous that there is no dominant theory today'to frame all this joyous complexity. As a student and benefactor of Charles Darwins work and speculations...I sense the living world we share makes sense to have had both incremental development of community interactions, communications, 'clock-work oranges' with emerging cognitions, and onto to self-awareness, and AI. Abrupt disruptions by biologic, geologic,and astronomical event ( will a sturdy umbrella work when next huge comet strikes?) insert often into our worlds deep time incremental progress to self awareness and mind.

Ray Bradberry short story: " dial double zero" sums up your shared article...the U.S. telephone network becomes so complicated and layered with switches and relays...that at one node in this huge system..intelligence occurs. Whoa to that one unlucky telephone subscriber to whom this telephone intelligence selects to call repeatedly, to learn about it's existence.

The depth of time that our living world flourished as unicell, virus, and prokaryote...it makes sense to me that increments of our cognitions were being forged, along with partnerships. I just do not see it as 'outrageous' that we to date have no one agreed theory of mind.

Sara Teasdale :"There will come soft rains"...Not one would mind, neither bird or tree, if mankind perished utterly. And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, would scarcely know that we were gone."

thanks for this link, charlie g

I think the reason these questions are so resistant to a clear, concise answers is that they nibble at the edges of our own insecurity about our place in all of it. Probably also why they are so unsettling to many.

The reason machines don't achieve self awareness is that have no self-interest. They have no aims and no attitudes.