Integrated Theory of Intelligence
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Entropy makes it possible for the anti-entropic principle to continuously restructure by-products of entropy into yet more complex forms. One certainly could not exist without the other. This anti-entropic principle accounts at least in part for the organizing force behind evolution. Since there is unquestionably a natural tendency for things to decay or disintegrate, there must also be an opposing tendency to overcome that downgrade process if things are to swim uphill and become more complex. It would be absolutely impossible through random variation for the universe to become more complex if such a tendency or principle did not exist.

Life forms are constantly being challenged by both biological entropic and physical entropic processes. Biological entropic processes refer to the invasion of more complex life forms by other, simpler organisms such as viruses, fungi and bacteria. Physical entropic processes refer to the attempted destruction of life forms by such things as the bombardment of an organism by electromagnetic radiation or high intensity sound waves, or the ingestion of toxins and other foreign inorganic substances.

In all living tissue there is a profound unity. A.I. Oparin has written, "The organism maintains its form, structure and chemical composition unchanged while its material is continually changing." Metabolic activity requires the breakdown of one substance and the build-up of another.23...Somehow the integrity of the whole organism is preserved throughout its life, even though there is a constant interchange of atoms and molecules. Large molecules are organized into living organisms that are open systems in a steady state of continual interchange with their surrounding environment. By tracing radioactive isotopes it has become possible to demonstrate that there is a rather rapid turnover and exchange of atoms and molecules within any organism. The matter comprising each and every cell does not remain static for long, but is broken down and eliminated, being replaced by new atoms and molecules. Many cells themselves live for only a few days before death and replacement.24...Even though its matter is in a constant state of turnover, the organism, including man, maintains its integrity throughout life.

This rapid turnover of matter is also constantly occurring within the human brain. It is a self-organizing information system rather than simply an information-handling machine. The fact that the turnover of atoms and molecules within the brain is occurring continuously with so little relative change in its stored information content (memory) is again seen to be evidence that intelligence (mind) has spatially related properties which go beyond its material content. The mind cannot simply be reduced to brain. It can be deduced that an evolving intellect is the agent that redirects the evolutionary process from a chance, mechanical process of survival to a discriminating, information-processing, self-directing faculty.25

There are a great number of complex functioning systems in lifeforms which appear to have an "all or nothing" characteristic, which have evolved over time, and which are extraordinarily difficult to explain if one tries to conceptualize a way that they might have occurred either gradually or by chance. One such example commonly referred to is the eye. It is a highly complex integrated organ requiring perfect interaction between the cornea, lens, intraocular muscles, retina, optic nerve and other anatomical structures. The coordinated effort required of each separate structure for the eye to operate is astronomically awesome. Darwin himself was plagued by this dilemma and as yet no one has begun to satisfactorily explain how the eye or other complex organ system could have evolved simply through a process of natural selection. Any evolutionary change in one of the component parts necessarily requires coordinated changes in the other parts as well.




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