dhw: I only refer to the cell because researchers such as Margulis, Shapiro and Albrecht-Buehler talk of the intelligent cell and not the intelligent genome. The point of the hypothesis is the existence of an autonomous form of intelligence, i.e. a mechanism that does its own planning, and if you think it's within the genome, that's absolutely fine with me. Can we therefore now say goodbye to the 3.7-billion-year-old computer programme with which your God organized every innovation and wonder in the history of life?-DAVID: Certainly not. Whatever program is in the genome runs the cells, not the other way around. The cells have a minimal epigentic adaptation ability. Cells cannot plan major species alterations to new species.-No problem for me. So now we have a mechanism that can do “a great deal of its own advancement planning” (you: 11 September), is situated in the genome, and directs cellular activity. This is all part of the evolutionary process “that God could have started” (you: 11 September). Agreement at last. Except that if it can do its own planning, the mechanism in the genome is obviously not simply obeying instructions programmed into it 3.7 billion years ago.