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Originally Posted by MARDAV70
I kinda wonder if there's a kind of consciousness that's developed in our DNA. I've wondered about this for some time. This seems to be what you're saying, organic born, without saying it...if I'm understanding you correctly.
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This has been a busy week on this end, starting a farm is no easy task, finally, I have a few moments to walk along with you a bit on this subject. :)
First we need to unravel the term 'consciousness' in this case. We tend to think that consciousness is the process of thought. That we think, therefore we are conscious. So when addressing consciousness within DNA we're mulling over the idea that DNA could think, plan, and selectively execute based on conscious observations and comparative thinking. I suspect that we humans are the only ones doing such a thing, and of course the results vary in creatively unique ways. So much so that if all of nature was doing the same thing what a mess natural selection would be! The human way of thinking is essentially unstable. In just one lifetime our thoughts about things can sway dramatically, and this based on conditional input. While nature is comparatively far more stable, so our DNA would likely reflect a more steady set of selective assumptions.
I was watching a program on mountain goats the other day and watched something that's truly quite interesting. There was a coyote in the background watching while a mother was giving birth to a baby mountain goat. The moment the baby hit ground the coyote started moving in. The baby goat took a moment to orient and then immediately responded to the threat that it was under. In less that 15 seconds or so the baby goat was navigating complex pathways among the rocks with the coyote hot on it's tail. The newborn exhibited incredible dexterity and an ability to plan it's next move. It found a spot in the rocks that it could reach and the coyote couldn't. It checkmated a grown coyote within a minute or so of being born.
So what part did DNA play in this? It clearly appears that there are variables in place that provided the newborn with an ability to selectively evaluate among a complexity of options. The baby goat seemed innately conscious of the immediate threat and then consciously chose the best options among what was available.
We humans, on the other hand, take 'far longer' than this to awaken to our environment in order to make these kinds of critical choices. It would almost seem that we're slow upstarts as to our ability to make use of any of the kinds of options that seem available almost instantly to those that we deem aren't as smart as we are.
Our DNA still has us programmed to suckle, to cry when we have needs, to look cute so our parents will allow us to live through the really tough developmental years. :) There are genetic predispositions that we have inclinations to act on in a notably compelling way. Our ability to talk is a genetic predisposition, while the language we chose to talk in would be more culturally inspired. Our drive to eat food, our drive to have sex, our whole host of fears from spiders and snakes to lions and drowning are all being demonstrated as predisposed inclinations that would conceivably be seen as a genetic propensity.
Does that mean that DNA has consciousness? Probably not in the way that we've interpreted consciousness to be, but perhaps it's a consciousness that's far more stable, and far more intelligent, than our opinion of what consciousness is.