(5) In lifeforms, intelligence is manifested across a wide spectrum and can even be viewed as a continuum with man at the upper end and the most basic and simplest lifeforms at the lower end. This is illustrated in the table below; however, it does not include all facets of intelligence; also, the order in which each is listed could be altered. The table illustrates the concept of how intelligence should be considered as a continuum. The following list is ordered in ascending complexity.
Intelligence Spectrum
(A) "Precognitive" recognition of numerous types, resulting in molecules or organisms of increasing complexity. (Intelligence operating on molecular or microscopic level.)
(1) First reproducing molecules (proto-organisms);
recognition of what atoms and molecules were needed for reproduction and survival.
(2) DNA reproduction (molecules seeking atoms and molecules).
(3) Recognition that increased complexity enhanced chance of survival because it allowed organisms to be preprogrammed in advance with more information (rules and advice) to cope with a greater number of
unpredictable eventualities.
(4) Recognition that an outer protective shell gave added protection and enhanced chance of survival.
(B) Unconscious body function; some examples include:
(1) Assimilation and conversion of energy.
(2) Development of enzyme systems (some systems, such as Cytochrome C., transcend all life forms.) (3) Absorption of nourishment.
(4) Excretion of waste material.
(a) Renal filtration and excretion.
(b) Liver metabolism and excretion.
(5) Temperature regulation.
(6) Reproductive function (sperm and ovum production).
(7) Immune system recognizing harmful invading organisms and killing them.
(8) Blood cell production in bone marrow or extramedullary hematopoiesis.
(9) Endocrine system--glandular functions of every type.
(10) Higher plant functions. Evidence of intelligent behavior in plants will be presented later in another section.
(11) Autonomic system (sympathetic and
parasympathetic) i.e., heart and respiratory regulation, vasoconstriction and dilation, gastrointestinal and genitourinary stimulation or relaxation, etc.
(C) Instinctual behavior with increasing degrees of complexity, from bacteria seeking nourishment all the way up to man's
learning to walk. Most all plant and animal behavior falls into this category (i.e., plant roots seeking moisture, fight-or-flight reflexes, birds flying, etc.)
(D) Learning ability.
(E) Reasoning.
(F) Problem solving.
(G) Value judgment.
(H) Abstraction.
(I) Creative thinking.
The appearance of these increasing states of intelligence can be placed on a non-linear time curve as was done in the prior section, but in this case substituting the various categories of intelligence for the estimated arrival times of categories of organisms. As before, each point on the curve can only be approximated, and thus the slope of the curve is in question.
This spectrum of intelligence exists as such because of the very way in which it has come about through a gradual process of upward evolution.
It was relatively simple in the earliest life forms and has become very complex with the arrival of man.
What I have envisioned as a spectrum or continuum has been referred to by others as a principle of hierarchization. This implies that there are successive levels of increasing complexity, flexibility and coordination in form, function and behavior, ranging from the relatively simple to the relatively complex. This is the same basic concept as presented in
General Systems Theory in Chapter Three. Hierarchization is found all around us, and is most apparent in terms of coordinating functions; i.e., the nucleus coordinates the activities of a single cell; nerve ganglia coordinate information passing through radiating synapses; the brain stem of higher mammals coordinates many bodily functions; and a queen bee coordinates the activities of the hive. (Ref. 7.1)
Each cell of any organism contains a total program in memory which potentially could allow it to construct the entire organism; however, each cell soon specializes during embryological development, giving up its toto-potentiality. It does this through a sophisticated electrochemical communications system. The individual cells collaborate to form a
higher system which becomes greater than the sum of its parts. (Ref. 7.2) At the less complex levels of the hierarchy, each unit develops and maintains its own integrity while participating in the generation of a higher level of function or behavior. The lower levels of hierarchy forfeit some of their autonomy to the next higher level which then has the responsibility of coordinating the activities of the lower level. (Ref. 7.3)
A vast inorganic hierarchy also is apparent and is comprised of
structures of increasing complexity, including quarks, electrons, atoms and molecules, each generating the next higher order and each
coordinating the activities of the lower. These inorganic molecules somewhere along the way apparently transmuted into organic ones, which then led to the formation of macromolecules, organelles, cells, tissues, organs, organ systems and higher life forms. Each of us inhabits a body that is hierarchically constructed. (Ref. 7.4)
The upward evolution of hierarchy seems to have been instituted from the top down, rather than from the bottom up, requiring a more complex source of information guiding the drive upward to higher and higher states of complexity. (Ref. 7.5)
A great deal of scientific research is being compiled which illustrates how intelligence permeates all levels of complexity within life forms, and has led to the synthesis of General Systems Theory as well as the principle of hierarchization. An immense amount of communication is continuously taking place within all living organisms on a molecular level. The ability to communicate in any form implies the presence of intelligence. Presented below are examples of communication that occur between the central nervous system (CNS), the immune system,
endocrine system and autonomic nervous system, all of which is
accomplished via neuropeptide molecules. The limbic system within the CNS also has been found to generate feelings, which are transmitted by the same neuropeptide messenger molecules.
The elaborate connection between the CNS and the immune system has been studied by many and is gradually becoming increasingly
understood.
Candace Pert has acknowledged the link between the nervous and
immune systems. It has been found that the immune system is engaged
in communications and a form of cognition. Neuropeptides originating in the CNS appear to direct the movement of components of the immune system such as the monocytes, which are directly involved in tissue
repair. Monocytes manufacture collagen, recognize and eliminate
foreign bodies and communicate with B- and T-cells within the immune system. It has also been found that the monocytes which are
manufactured in bone marrow can become glial cells in the brain. So far, well over fifty neuropeptides have been discovered that act as
communicating molecules between the CNS and the immune system in a bi-directional information network. (Ref. 7.6)
The immune system also is beginning to appear to be a liquid sensory-motor organ under control of the CNS. It seems to be influenced by both positive and negative emotions. Positive feelings tend to facilitate the actions of the immune system and negative feelings suppress it.
Norepinephrine is released during the experiencing of negative emotions and has been shown to suppress immune function. Men whose wives are dying of cancer have decreased levels of lymphocytes, which are those cells critical to the immune system's ability to fight off disease. Both nerve cells and lymphocytes have been found to possess identical receptor sites for certain chemicals, thus providing a communications link between the CNS and immune system. (Ref. 7.7)
Animal experiments have also demonstrated the relationship between the brain and the immune system. Gerard Renoux of the University of Tours in France found that destroying part of the mouse's cerebral cortex changed the structure and ability of immune cells, i.e., the number of white blood cells in the spleen would drop and the ones remaining
would become less efficient at killing tumors and responding to foreign cells. (Ref. 7.8)
The immune system exhibits memory, which is considered to be one of the properties of intelligence. This memory is stored in the unconscious
and represents a kind of biological learning which yields, as needed, specific antibodies to fight infection, repelling selectively and for a lifetime the invasion of any alien matter. (Ref. 7.9)
Communication manifesting intelligence has also been found to exist between the CNS and the endocrine system, utilizing the same
neuropeptide messengers. Ernest Rossi, a psychologist, has proposed a mind-gene connection based on communicating messenger molecules.
He believes circumstances and emotions shape our behavior and health through brain-body influences down to the cellular level.
Just as information from the CNS directs the immune system, it also controls various other body systems, including the endocrine, via
hormones and other neuropeptide messenger molecules. The endocrine system, for example, is under the control of the unconscious mind, which operates through the limbic system. Proto-hormones in the hypothalamus are released and these in turn liberate hormones in the pituitary. These various hormones then can activate the different
endocrine organs such as the adrenals, thyroid, ovaries and testes. The target endocrine organs respond by producing steroid-type hormones which can penetrate individual cell walls throughout the body. They can traverse the cellular cytoplasm and enter the nucleus where they
unzipper specific parts of the genes. The DNA templates manufacture RNA, which communicates information to the cellular cytoplasm as to which proteins are to be manufactured. (Ref. 7.10) Thus the unconscious mind oversees all bodily functions in similar fashion, demonstrating how intelligence controls this hierarchy of systems.
The same neuropeptides that are activated by the CNS and exercise control over the immune and endocrine systems also influence the autonomic nervous system. This system, which is ordinarily under control of the unconscious, can also be influenced by the conscious
mind. For example, patients with chronic hypertension have been able to
learn how to control their blood pressure through biofeedback
techniques. (Ref. 7.11) Exotic techniques have also been used in yoga for many years allowing them to learn how to clot their own blood at will, as well as reverse peristalsis in their gastrointestinal tract to nourish themselves with fluids sucked up through their anus. They have also learned how to slow their rate of metabolism to survive for hours in airtight containers on a fraction of the oxygen thought necessary to sustain life. (Ref. 7.12)
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the autonomic nervous system, as well as all other body systems, are under direct control of the
unconscious mind as part of the intelligence system. It is also apparent that the conscious mind can at times be trained to take over direction of many processes and body functions that ordinarily are under control of the unconscious.
The limbic brain, which oversees the endocrine system, has also been shown to be intimately involved with the release of neuropeptide messenger molecules that generate our feelings and emotional responses. Paul MacLean, chief of the National Institute of Mental Health's laboratory of brain evolution and behavior, believes that the limbic system is our emotional brain and thus generates feelings in
response to the environment which are both protective and aggrandizing, including the emotions of desire, anger, fear, sorrow, joy and affection.
(Ref. 7.13) These feelings and all others are transmitted by various
neuropeptide molecules which are the same neuropeptides that direct the movement of components of the immune, endocrine and autonomic
nervous systems. The latter two systems plus the limbic system have all been shown to be involved in the expression of emotion, probably
because the neuropeptides released by the limbic system affect the other organ systems simultaneously. (Ref. 7.14)
Many animals have limbic brains, so that it is not reaching too far to suggest that perhaps they have much of this same capacity. Many animals certainly do display evidence of emotion. It would also seem reasonable to presume that human emotion had to undergo the same evolutionary process that other systems went through.
The phenomenon of consciousness needs to be included in the
intelligence spectrum; however, there is certainly no lack of controversy as to how this should be done. Do only humans experience
consciousness? Should primates be included? Or does consciousness extend farther down the evolutionary scale? There are proponents who would restrict the existence of consciousness to human experience, and there are others who would argue that all lifeforms have varying degrees of it. There are some who see consciousness as a basic property of
matter and would maintain that it stretches all the way back through phylogenetic evolution and beyond. (Ref. 7.15) Others assert that
consciousness is not inherent in all matter but is actually a fundamental property of all living tissue. (Ref. 7.16) Darwin would be included in this group. Still others link the beginning of consciousness to the appearance of associative memory and learning. (Ref. 7.17) Once an animal is able to modify its behavior on the basis of its experience, it must be having an experience; therefore it must be conscious. (Ref. 7.18) Julian Jaynes would even place the origin of consciousness in man as late as the second
millennium B.C. (Ref. 7.19)
Hoimar v. Ditfurth has stated that unquestionably there are innumerable degrees of mind. This is apparent, both through evolutionary history and at the present time, in the experiential grids of so many species, each at a different level of development. These grids can be arranged in a finely gradated series so that they appear as a seamless continuity. Mind did not suddenly burst into the world, but evolved in a steady, slow, tortuous process. He believes that as matter evolved mind went through a process of increasingly more elaborate development. (Ref. 7.20)
The concept of consciousness is an enormously complex subject and will be dealt with in a later section. Consciousness requires the existence of intelligence but the presence of intelligence does not necessarily
require the existence of consciousness.
Self-consciousness in animals has been studied experimentally, and according to Gordon Gallup chimpanzees have been found to exhibit it.
They can come to recognize themselves in mirrors, as well as recognize themselves as themselves. (Ref. 7.21)
Whether consciousness is confined to higher animals or is inherent in all matter, non-living included, it probably follows a non-linear curve much like that for intelligence.
The concept that intelligence is manifested across a wide spectrum throughout the entire animal and plant kingdoms will be further
illustrated in a later section. However, it should already be very apparent that intelligence operates at all levels of living tissue as reflected by
molecular memory and extensive neuro-chemical communication.
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