Evolutionary epistemology: Reviewing and reviving with new data the research programme for distributed biological intelligence

Induced resistance to herbivory and the intelligent plant

Plant induced responses to environmental stressors are increasingly studied in a behavioral ecology context. This is particularly true for plant induced responses to herbivory that mediate direct and indirect defenses, and tolerance. These seemingly adaptive alterations of plant defense phenotypes in the context of other environmental conditions have led to the discussion of such responses as intelligent behavior. Here we consider the concept of plant intelligence and some of its predictions for chemical information transfer in plant interaction with other organisms. Within this framework, the flow, perception, integration, and storage of environmental information are considered tunable dials that allow plants to respond adaptively to attacking herbivores while integrating past experiences and environmental cues that are predictive of future conditions. The predictive value of environmental information and the costs of acting on false information are important drivers of the evolution of plant responses to herbivory. We identify integrative priming of defense responses as a mechanism that allows plants to mitigate potential costs associated with acting on false information. The priming mechanisms provide short- and long-term memory that facilitates the integration of environmental cues without imposing significant costs. Finally, we discuss the ecological and evolutionary prediction of the plant intelligence hypothesis.

Principles of cognitive biology and the concept of biocivilisations

A range of studies published in the last few decades promotes the cognitive aspects of life: all organisms, from bacteria to mammals, are capable of sensing/perception, decision-making, problem-solving, learning, and other cognitive functions, including sentience and consciousness. In this paper I present a scientific and philosophical synthesis of these studies, leading to an integrated view of cognitive biology. This view is expressed through the four principles applicable to all living systems: (1) sentience and consciousness, (2) autopoiesis, (3) free energy principle and relational biology, and (4) cognitive repertoire. The principles are circular, and they reinforce themselves. The circularity is not rigid, meaning that hierarchical and heterarchical shifts are widespread in the biosphere. The above principles emerged at the dawn of life, with the first cells, bacteria and archaea. All biogenic forms and functions that emerged since then can be traced to the first cells - indivisible units of biological agency. Following these principles, I developed the concept of biocivilisations to explain various forms of social intelligence in different kingdoms of life. The term biociviloisations draws on the human interpretation of the concept of civilisation, which searches for non-human equivalents of communication, engineering, science, medicine, art, and agriculture, in all kingdoms of life by applying the principles of cognitive biology. Potential avenues for testing the concept of biocivilisations are highlighted.

Natural intelligence and the 'economy' of social emotions: A connection with AI sentiment analysis

By approaching the concept of Natural Intelligence a new path may be open in a variety of theoretical and applied problems on social emotions. There is no doubt that intelligence emerges as a biological/informational phenomenon, although paradoxically a consistent elaboration of that concept has been missing. Regarding emotions, they have been keeping an unclear status, being often restricted to the anthropological or to ethological approaches closer to the behaviorist paradigm. Herein we propose a different track, centered in the life cycle advancement. The life cycle in its integrity becomes the nucleus of natural intelligence's informational processes, including the consistent expression of emotions along the maximization of fitness occasions. In human societies, the overall 'economy' of social emotions is manifest, showing up in the conspicuous interplay between bonding processes and different classes of social emotions. The essential link between natural intelligence, emotions, and the life cycle of individuals may harmonize with current progresses - and blind spots - of artificial intelligence fields such as 'sentiment analysis.'

Plant Intelligence from a Comparative Psychology Perspective

After being subjected to years of debates regarding the possibility that plants possess some form of intelligence, many admit to needing to close their eyes and to breathe mindfully when having to listen to the same arguments yet again [...].

Reconfiguring SETI in the microbial context: Panspermia as a solution to Fermi's paradox

All SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) programmes that were conceived and put into practice since the 1960s have been based on anthropocentric ideas concerning the definition of intelligence on a cosmic-wide scale. Brain-based neuronal intelligence, augmented by AI, are currently thought of as being the only form of intelligence that can engage in SETI-type interactions, and this assumption is likely to be connected with the dilemma of the famous Fermi paradox. We argue that high levels of intelligence and cognition inherent in ensembles of bacteria are much more likely to be the dominant form of cosmic intelligence, and the transfer of such intelligence is enabled by the processes of panspermia. We outline the main principles of bacterial intelligence, and how this intelligence may be used by the planetary-scale bacterial system, or the bacteriosphere, through processes of biological tropism, to connect to any extra-terrestrial microbial forms, independently of human interference.

Serial Endosymbiosis Theory: From biology to astronomy and back to the origin of life

Serial Endosymbiosis Theory, or SET, was conceived and developed by Lynn Margulis, to explain the greatest discontinuity in the history of life, the origin of eukaryotic cells. Some predictions of SET, namely the origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts, withstood the test of the most recent evidence from a variety of disciplines including phylogenetics, biochemistry, and cell biology. Even though some other predictions fared less well, SET remains a seminal theory in biology. In this paper, I focus on two aspects of SET. First, using the concept of "universal symbiogenesis", developed by Freeman Dyson to search for commonalities in astronomy and biology, I propose that SET can be extended beyond eukaryogenesis. The extension refers to the possibility that even prokaryotic organisms, themselves subject to the process of symbiogenesis in SET, could have emerged symbiotically. Second, I contrast a recent "viral eukaryogenesis" hypothesis, according to which the nucleus evolved from a complex DNA virus, with a view closer to SET, according to which the nucleus evolved through the interplay of the archaeal host, the eubacterial symbiont, and a non-LTR transposon, or telomerase. Viruses joined in later, through the process of viral endogenization, to shape eukaryotic chromosomes in the process of karyotype evolution. These two proposals based on SET are a testament to its longevity as a scientific theory.

An internet of microbes straddling the cosmos

Exchanges of information analogous to a global internet have been known to take place between biological systems on the Earth ranging from bacteria and viruses to plants and animals. We argue that this process can be extended to include a cosmic biosphere within which evolution would seem to be intimately interlinked across astronomical, perhaps cosmological distance scales. Comets and interstellar dust, argued to have a bacterial/viral component, could be involved in establishing these links.

A cosmic virosphere

The concept of a cosmic virosphere that serves as the repository of information for all life on Earth and throughout the Universe is discussed. Recent studies in geology, astronomy and biology point to an intimate connection between the evolution of life and a cosmic virosphere/biosphere.