COOPERATION BY MECHANISM – NOT INTELLIGENCE Re: Apologies for the reaction to we

COOPERATION BY MECHANISM – NOT INTELLIGENCE
Re: https://t.co/dXAh16TENb

Apologies for the reaction to well-intentioned pseudoscientific fictionalism for the purpose of promotion of science via appeal to populism through the continued abuse of the human want of anthropomorphic explanations – the very supernaturalism that we are still trying to escape that mysticism brought upon us.

And in particular, the new mysticism that has emerged from the revolution in pseudoscience – both in mathematical physics that’s stagnated the field, and in the behavioral ‘sciences’ in the 20th century.
I’d prefer we not drag biology back down into that trap as well.

So, I don’t like the analogy to intelligence or cognition, and would prefer the correct interpretation: *cooperation*. (a) The transition to the integration of mitochondrial cooperation, (b) to multicellular cooperation, (c) to specialization as cooperation, required a series of leaps, but I don’t think it’s truthful or testifiable to claim it’s intelligence.

We might discuss, as in physics as information, computation, and cooperation – but intelligence?

No. Prediction isn’t going on down there because memory isn’t going on down there. If recordkeeping of successful trial and error in the absence of prediction is occurring, that’s not intelligence (prediction) it’s trial and error.