dhw: This brings us to a problem. Experience suggests that different forms of matter have varying degrees of intelligence. We can't prove it, but I hope you and others will agree that humans seem to have a greater degree of intelligence than chimps than earthworms than dandelions than rocks than grains of sand. > > David: Another logic leap: I agree that living matter has differing degrees of intelligence based on brain complexity, but inorganic matter does not have intelligence-Unfortunately things like intelligence and consciousness are one of those strange things, that I think we define into existence.-Does a chemist in a university chemistry department have more intelligence than the department itself. Is a human being more or less intelligent without the flora and fauna that is normally found in the intestines. They certainly modify our behaviours. An ant and its colony?-Our intelligence and consciousness our are personal little gods. Now it would appear these things are ultimately caused by electron exchange (a chemist's view) and no doubt a whole bunch of underlying fundamental physics. -This underlying physics I am far from ready to call god.