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 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Cellular intelligence Computation Decision-making Evolution Microphenomenology Regeneration |
| Key points | Argues that cellular intelligence in organisms like shell-building amoebae and Antithamnion is unrecognized by science and not amenable to computer analysis. |
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.