Even aside from cancer, cells in the same organism constantly compete for resources. This is actually vital to some human processes. See for example this paper.
They compete only at an unnecessarily complex level of abstraction. A simpler explanation for cell behavior (per the minimum message length formalism) is that each one is indifferent to the survival of itself or the other cells, which in the same body have the same genes, as this preference is what tends to result from natural selection on self-replicating molecules containing those genes; and that they will prefer even more (in the sense that their form optimizes for this under the constraint of history) that genes identical to those contained therein become more numerous.
This is bad teleological thinking. The cells don’t prefer anything. They have no motivation as such. Moreover, there’s no way for a cell to tell if a neighboring cell shares the same genes. (Immune cells can in certain limited circumstances detect cells with proteins that don’t belong but the vast majority of cells have no such ability. And even then, immune cells still compete for resources). The fact is that many sorts of cells compete with each other for space and nutrients.
This is bad teleological thinking. The cells don’t prefer anything.
This insight forms a large part of why I made the statements:
“this preference is what tends to result from natural selection on self-replicating molecules containing those genes”
“they will prefer even more (in the sense that their form optimizes for this under the constraint of history)” (emphasis added in both)
I used “preference” (and specified I was so using the term) to mean a regularity in the result of its behavior which is due to historical optimization under the constraint of natural selection on self-replicating molecules, not to mean that cells think teleologically, or have “preferences” in the sense that I do or that the colony of cells that you identify as do.
Have you heard of the human disease cancer?
Have you heard of how common cancer is per cell existence-moment?
Even aside from cancer, cells in the same organism constantly compete for resources. This is actually vital to some human processes. See for example this paper.
They compete only at an unnecessarily complex level of abstraction. A simpler explanation for cell behavior (per the minimum message length formalism) is that each one is indifferent to the survival of itself or the other cells, which in the same body have the same genes, as this preference is what tends to result from natural selection on self-replicating molecules containing those genes; and that they will prefer even more (in the sense that their form optimizes for this under the constraint of history) that genes identical to those contained therein become more numerous.
This is bad teleological thinking. The cells don’t prefer anything. They have no motivation as such. Moreover, there’s no way for a cell to tell if a neighboring cell shares the same genes. (Immune cells can in certain limited circumstances detect cells with proteins that don’t belong but the vast majority of cells have no such ability. And even then, immune cells still compete for resources). The fact is that many sorts of cells compete with each other for space and nutrients.
This insight forms a large part of why I made the statements:
“this preference is what tends to result from natural selection on self-replicating molecules containing those genes”
“they will prefer even more (in the sense that their form optimizes for this under the constraint of history)” (emphasis added in both)
I used “preference” (and specified I was so using the term) to mean a regularity in the result of its behavior which is due to historical optimization under the constraint of natural selection on self-replicating molecules, not to mean that cells think teleologically, or have “preferences” in the sense that I do or that the colony of cells that you identify as do.
Ah, ok. I misunderstood what you were saying.