well, if you mean that microbes, or cells of any type can sense that they are packed in an overcroweded environment, this is a fact. They can sense the scarcity of nutrients and feel the dynamical forces from their neighbouring cells and this leads to a decrease in proliferation rates. I would call this proto-intelligence or even a form of real intelligence.
However, i don't understand what this has to do with the Universe being quasi-intelligent or the process that makes those cells in the quasi-intelligent.
Because there is no true motivation or intent in mathematical functions. True motivated intelligence requires a conscious brain and nothing in the universe can have a brain except for biological organisms, even as they start as purely chemical patterns probabilistically self-organising into bio-chemical molecules and evolving greater sensory abilities and neural information processing networks.
Lets begin with the regular patterns which frequently and spontaneously form throughout the universe and on earth and often emerge from otherwise chaotic conditions. The physical Universe clearly displays an ability for self-organizing quasi-intelligent self-referential functions.
These self-organizing patterns are a clear sign of a mathematical aspect to the physical properties and the physical interactions of everything.
The table of elements is a perfect example of the mathematical self-organizational nature of atoms. We can qualify and quantify all known elements and we even have been able to mathematically create elements which cannot exist in nature due to their inherent energetic instability. But which proves that human mathematics are indeed functionally accurate to predict naturally mathematically emergent phenomena.
The first element discovered through synthesis was technetium—its discovery being definitely confirmed in 1936. This discovery filled a gap in the periodic table, and the fact that no stable isotopes of technetium exist explains its natural absence on Earth (and the gap).
OUR ability to force the manifestation of Higgs bosons from the Higgs field proves that even at the most subtle level human mathematics are functionally efficient. It just takes a lot of energy like the Cern collider.
Chemistry is the mathematical physical foundation of all observable physical objects and displays a clear mathematical function in the formation of all expressed physical patterns throughout the universe, including the formation of galaxies.
The identified universal constants (i.e. E = Mc^2) are equations of mathematical relationships between physical values and their inherent energetic potentials to do work.
Thus IMO, we can say that all natural phenomena occurring throughout the universe display a mathematical aspect and a mathematical potential to perform work. A quasi-intelligent mathematical ability.
This allows us to conclude that universal values and functions display inherent predictable quasi-intelligent behaviors, completely removed from any intentional or motivated creativity. It is a purely probabilistic but predictable deterministic behavior.
This is at the purely chemical level throughout the universe. But the process of these creative mathematical processes also results in the formation of bio-chemicals, such as hydrogen, carbon, etc.
Biochemistry, sometimes called
biological chemistry, is the study of
chemical processes within and relating to living
organisms.
[1] Biochemical processes give rise to the complexity of life.
Descending to earth.
Scientists believe that about 25 of the known elements are essential to life. Just four of these – carbon (C), oxygen (O), hydrogen (H) and nitrogen (N) – make up about 96% of the human body. ... These four elements are found in the basic structure of all biochemical molecules.
Apparently, during the formation and evolution of earth there occurred an hospitable environment which was responsible in the formation of bio-chemical molecules, self-organization of cells, and the chemical ability to copy themselves. This is how dynamic living organisms emerged, displaying quasi-intelligent abilities, the proto types to the evolution of sensory receptors, neural information distribution networks, central information processing, and the eventual emergence of conscious motivational intelligence.
All fauna have quasi-intelligent mathematical biological patterns. Daisies and Sunflowers follow the Fibonacci Sequence in the formation of petals and seed distribution. These abilities are a result of natural selection for efficient collection and distribitoion of solar energy through photo-synthesis, a very mathematical process.
Many flowers and plants can "sense" the position of the sun in the sky and follow its path.
Flowers that track the sun are called heliotropic or phototropic flowers. Heliotropic flowersactually turn their blossoms to face the sun while phototropic flowers grow toward the sun.
IMO, all these natural abilities are mathematical precursors to true intelligence.
If the phenomenon of intelligence is to be viewed as a spectrum of phenomena, what is the underlying mechanism which created such a phenomenon in the first place? What lies at the base of the phenomenon of intelligence? All living systems, including the subsystems of advanced biosystems, exhibit some level of intelligence as defined in the present work. The question then must be asked: may inorganic, non-living systems exhibit intelligence?
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/302352887_Proto-Intelligence
This is where I make the distinction between quasi-intelligent purely mathematical behavior and the emergence of fully intelligent motivated survival behaviors.
Note that there are several types of motivated intelligence. Octopy and Cuttlefish are sentient, intelligent, motivated organisms, but they have nine brains and are completely alien to say, mammalian organisms, except for the fact that they too are invertebrates, i.e. extremely vulnerable to predation.
Their motivated physical abilities and behavior are uniquely adapted to aquatic survival.
Deep-sea thinkers
Octopuses and their kin (cuttlefish and squid) stand apart from other invertebrates, having evolved with much larger nervous systems and greater cognitive complexity.
The majority of neurons in an octopus are found in the arms, which can independently taste and touch and also control basic motions without input from the brain.
Octopus brains and vertebrate brains have no common anatomy but support a variety of similar features, including forms of short- and long-term memory, versions of sleep, and the capacities to recognize individual people and explore objects through play.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-mind-of-an-octopus/
I mention these as examples of completely divergent evolutionary paths leading to similar intelligent abilities and behaviors, in mutually exclusive environments.
But none of this requires a supernatural motivated intelligent "helping hand".
