The first thought and the intelligence (god) particle

As we saw many experiments demonstrate, matter has consciousness just like the living beings. Water can distinguish between good and bad and react to it, it can remember things, and tiny particles of metal can organize themselves in an intelligent pattern. Is there such thing as an intelligence particle or god particle? A particle that either contains intelligence or is somehow connected to its source?

Intelligence of water and non-living matter

In my other posts I gave numerous examples of intelligence at work in simple organisms without any brain or nerves. In this post I'll go a step further and show you some indications of intelligence in traditionally non-living matter.

Smart slime

Physarum polycephalum

a single-celled critter that should be as dumb as slime on the bathtub, because that's all it is - a slime, can navigate through mazes better than a rat on steroids; it always finds the shortest and the fastest way to the food.

Is there animate and inanimate matter or are they the same?

Most scientists differentiate living matter from non-living and would insist that the molecules and other tiny particles are non-living. That makes as much sense as to say that if you take a bag of Legos and shake it for a billion years, eventually they'll fall into some functional shape of a living creature, which will jump out of the bag and bite off your arm.

Do you need a brain to think?

If you have a difficult decision to make and ask someone for advice, people usually tell you, "Follow your heart". The folk wisdom recognizes that a brain shouldn't be relied on in important matters. In fact, the scientists found recently, that a heart has a lot of nurons, even more than muscle tissue. The new approach to studying the heart as a brain is called neurocardiology. But the question I pose goes beyond even that. If a heart is a sort of a brain, it is still a brain. My question is: can there be thought without a brain of any kind? Can a brain impose more limitations on thinking, rather than promote it? Is a brain a cause of a 'closed mind'? Can 'thinking outside the box' mean to think outside one's brain?

Did humans really evolve from monkeys?

It may be that we didn't spontaneously evolve from monkeys, even though we are genetically related and look so similar.  Being a mammal and being related to other mammals doesn't have to mean that we evolved from one naturally and accidentally. Here are a number of facts that strongly suggest that we might have been genetically engineered or somehow tampered with:

My definition of intelligence

I guess I should make it clear what I mean by intelligence or thinking, when I speak of plants or animals. I do not mean instinct, where an animal does something automatically, like a bird building a nest, the way her grand-grand-grand-mother did. What I mean by intelligence is ability to react in a creative way to a given situation; to learn new things and to problem-solve. Let me give you a couple of examples:

I had a cat years ago, who figured out all by herself how to play fetch.

How intelligent is a single cell?

Let's look at an amoeba - a single-celled organism. Amoebas live in the water, they eat algae, bacterias, and whatever microscopic bits of dead plants and animals that float around. They eat by stretching out their shapeless body, surrounding the food and pulling it into themselves. The temporary limbs amoeba sticks out for grabbing food are called pseudopods (fake legs).

Is theory of evolution right or wrong?

I think, just like Newtonian physics, Darwin's theory of evolution breaks down when you get out of a certain range. Just like Einstein's theory of relativity was necessary when you got down to particles and started going with the speed of light, same with the theory of evolution - another theory is needed to go beyond the obvious, like breeding show dogs and strawberries the size of grapefruit.

The theory of evolution can't be applied to anything smaller than a virus. Can you apply it to life just below the conventionally accepted threshold of life? Can you apply it to, say, water, air, and other supposedly non-living matter?

I propose an extension to Darwin's theory of evolution. Call it a theory of pre-evolution. After all, in the beginning was nothing but clouds of helium and hydrogen, which compressed into different heavier molecules and made the world we live in. And those heavier molecules formed amino acids - the building blocks of life, we call them. But weren't the real building blocks atoms of hydrogen? And what sort of evolution caused hydrogen atoms to form life?

How am I qualified to start a church?

That could be your obvious question, and I don't blame you. Okay, first of all, my birthday adds up to 1, and my social security number adds up to 1, my mom, my daughter and I were all born on the same day, and god spoke to me and told me to start a church. So, is that enough credentials for now? After all, it's not like I'm asking for money or anything that crass. (Yes, I do have a "donate" button, but that doesn't count, since donations are strictly voluntary, and I'm not asking you to donate at all - the button just sits there for your convenience in case you had a sudden urge to donate.)