>Pat,
>
>Natural languages are important, but tiny compared to the
>enormous amount of information organisms receive from all other
>kinds of signs.
>
>PH> A bacterium can respond to signs? What language do they speak?
>
...
>Bacteria ... have a rich
>system of responses to a wide range of signs, which include chemicals
>of various kinds, physical contact, temperature, etc. (01)
Wait. Why do you call these 'signs'? What makes a physical attribute
into a 'sign'? If anything at all can be a sign, the category is
meaningless. If it is a sign if it produces a reaction in some living
thing, why do you exclude viruses? They react to their environment in
various ways. You describe the interaction between a cell and a virus
in terms that make the cell be the agent, but this is merely
word-play. You could just as easily say that the virus (cleverly)
tricks the (dumb, mindless) cell into ingesting it. But none of this
intentional talk is appropriate at this scale. (02)
Pat
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