RE: [asa] Intelligence

Rationality underlies intelligence. Now intelligent beings cannot make sense of irrationality and so our ability of making sense of Nature is proof of the rationality and thus intelligence behind Nature.
Moorad

________________________________
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of Schwarzwald [schwarzwald@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 9:25 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Re: [asa] Intelligence

Heya Randy,

Sure, that's what Trewavas sees and highlights. But someone else looking at the situation would see intelligence suffused throughout living systems (and possibly in non-living, though that's not an area even commented on here) as yet more evidence of design in action - living systems that have 'their own intelligence' would immediately be akin to computers and programs, the results or tools of an external agency employing life towards a goal. Regarding life as intelligent in the broad sense of the term (rather than unintelligent/purposeless) seems to mesh easily with the general ID mode of thought.

Granted, it's not knock-down scientific proof of external agency - I don't believe such a thing is possible in principle, personally. But it certainly meshes well with the general ID concept as I see it, as-is.

On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 8:46 PM, Randy Isaac <randyisaac@comcast.net<mailto:randyisaac@comcast.net>> wrote:
I don't follow your reasonng about bolsterng "the idea that an external agent's fingerprints may be seen..."
Trewavas explicitly sees intelligence as an "emergent property that results from the complex interactions between tissues and cells..."
This is not to argue in any way for the lack of such an agent but merely that it cannot be inferred directly from the observation of the living cells. I think Trewavas is saying that in his opinion, all living systems show some characteristics of intelligence, not an external intelligent agent, but its own intelligence that arises from the interactions of the components.

It would indeed be an interesting direction for some ID thinkers to possibly move, but it might take them in a direction they didn't intend.

Randy
----- Original Message -----
From: Schwarzwald<mailto:schwarzwald@gmail.com>
To: Randy Isaac<mailto:randyisaac@comcast.net>
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: [asa] Intelligence

Heya Randy,

This leads to an intriguing and stimulating possibility. The "intelligent cause" cited by the ID community as being the "best inference" from the patterns in living cells, need not be an independent, external agent, but the intelligence of the cell itself. Or to say it in another way, the design of the genome (or any living system) may be due to the intelligence of the genome (or that particular system).

Which can in turn be cited to bolster the idea that an external agent's fingerprints may be seen even at so fundamental a level in living systems. Or maybe even extended to the idea that the system as a whole (including environment, cosmological, or other 'nonliving' aspects) is itself the product of a transcendent intelligence.

Interesting direction for some ID thinkers to possibly move, I admit.

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Received on Fri Jan 2 21:31:30 2009