Hi Will
OK. I think I can see where you are coming from on this. I haven't had time to read anyone else's views, but here's mine.
I would say there is a distinct difference between the affect certain conditions or stimuli may have on inanimate objects (of any size) and the affect they may have on organic life. Inanimate objects do not "make a response" to anything. They do not have any kind of self-interest. They do not react. They are simply pushed and pulled by the laws of physics, like pebbles being washed up and down a beach.
Simple organic life (such as a single celled bacteria), can make a "patterned response" as you call it to certain stimuli, but these are simple types of reflex action; they cannot truly be expressed as self-interest as they have no sense of self. There is no congnitive or conscious thought behind these responses. The organism has no idea of its own existence and no will to live.
Complex organisms like human beings also respond to conditions and stimuli all the time without the cognitive or conscious brain being aware of this. In that sense you could say we make a "patterned response". But we also have cognitive and conscious minds that operates on quite a distinct and different level, with a true self-interest. We have the ability to DECIDE what kind of response to make. Now it may be that when you break down all the processes that make that decision, you would find that they were a complex accumulation of patterned responses. But I don't accept that each of those patterned responses in isolation represents an kind of intelligence, any more that a wire or a bolt makes an engine.
So, in summary, I would say this:
- Inanimate objects make no patterned responses and have no intelligence.
- Simple life forms make patterned responses but have no intelligence.
- Complex life forms make patterned responses and have intelligence.
Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Add blank lines.
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