dhw: You juggle with two types of information: information in the genetic code, and information we absorb and process from our contact with the outside world. Whenever I want to discuss the mechanism (intelligence) which deals with the latter, you switch to the former and ask for its source. -That is because I want you to clearly make the distinction. I know there are both kinds of information as you do, but I am insisting that in the simple organisms, what looks like intelligence is really programs running on information in the genome, and those programs respond to information the sensory mechanism pick up.- > dhw; Once again, it is the non-instinctive element that I am focusing on. We agree that human intelligence is vastly more developed than that of other organisms, but that does not mean other organisms are not intelligent. -At the advanced level like corvids, dogs, apes, yes they have some simple intelligence.- > > dhw: Of course you have every right to dismiss the research of those specialists who believe bacteria to be intelligent. Any concessions for my friends the ant-teachers?-I agree they instruct, but perhaps by instinct only.