an issue we are all obliged to take interest in as long as we live and breathe. Take any organism. It could be you or I, an orchid, a virus, or even your favourite cat. What they all have in common is intelligent structure. What I mean here is that all organisms have an inherent design, an inherent functionality which allows them to exist i.e. grow, endure and reproduce. Now, if we have any kind of sober interest in these matters, we might well wonder why and how refined organisms like our ourselves came to be. Where did all this intelligent structure come from?

Well no-one would get upset if I passed the buck at this point and said that the intelligent structure of organisms is derived from the DNA coded into virtually each and every cell making up the organism. This DNA code determines the nature of all living things for it bears the instructions for making them. In fact, the DNA of an organism is highly analogous to the binary computer code making up computer software. Both sorts of code are linguistic in nature, and both can be `read' when coming under an appropriate context. Computer code is binary (the coding medium consists of just two elemental states, `on or off' bits, eight of which make a byte) whereas DNA coding is quaternary (the coding medium consists of four elements - the four bases of DNA).

With computer programs, the coded information or script is read by the computer's CPU, whilst DNA is read by the natural environment. Put a Microsoft program like Windows 95 into a computer and it makes sense and does its thing. All very smart and useful. Alternatively, put, say, an egg or a seed with their DNA content in the right environment, and they too will do their thing and produce living organisms. Even more smart.

Having homed in more closely, the question now arises as to who or what writes the sophisticated organic linguistic code found in DNA? Who's the author, the composer, the engineer as it were? It sure ain't Microsoft. Computer software designers are not that smart.

Well, there's no surprise actually, for the engineering force behind DNA is evolution. We are taught, with scientific conviction, that evolution is the cause of the intelligent structure coded within an organism's DNA. So what exactly is this evolution, this single 9-lettered referent which apparently explains the existence of fully functioning organisms? Evolution, it seems, is the key to explaining the mysteries of life and existence for the evolutionary process literally wrote you and I. If it were not for evolution we would not be here to wonder about all this. So, grasp the essence of evolution and you're one step nearer to the Great Mystery. One does not need tales of UFO's, ghosts, telepathy, miracles, and so on to perceive the Great Mystery of being. A simple reflection upon the evolutionary process and all the organic spells that it has woven is enough to satisfy even the biggest prescient appetite....

Neo-Darwinian science tells us that evolution is a natural process which has dominated the surface of the Earth for the last 3 or so billion years. Moreover, it is a process which has led, willy-nilly, to our conscious species who can reflect such an astonishing fact. My point, my important bone of contention, my heresy if you like, is that I believe that the evolutionary process can be interpreted as being a smart or intelligent process. Since this is indeed a somewhat contentious and bold conjecture (though hopefully prescient), let me defend it.

Essentially, evolution is an information-gaining process. Which means that over incredibly vast stretches of time organisms have evolved more and more complex genotypes in response to the environment. If we take the much talked about human genotype - written as it is in almost every human cell - then its information content is staggering. To be sure, its information content is far more than that held in all the volumes of the Encyclopaedia Brittannica. Think about it. Or learn it even. In almost every cell of your primate organism there resides a genetic code written in the form of an organic string of nucleic acids which contains a latent version of your entire functioning body. Your face, your genitalia, your heart, lungs and kidneys - in short your very life, is all there in that code. Even information on making youthful organs is there, an astonishing fact when perceiving an aging person in the last stages of life.

Lets put some figures on this DNA coding. Lets really astonish ourselves. According to Richard `selfish-genes-and-miscreant-memes' Dawkins, it is estimated that the nucleus of almost every cell of the human body contains in excess of 700 Megabytes of information. That is, if you were to write out all the 4-bit DNA code of the human genome string it would fill up about 600 standard PC disks which is, to be sure, a lot. It is in this dramatic sense that evolution can be understood to be an information-gaining process since it has led to such an incredible organic state of affairs.

Now, it is also the case that intelligence - the type of intelligence we normally think of as being exhibited by humans - can also be defined as a process. In other words, intelligence is precisely an information-gaining process just as evolution is an information-gaining process. Through the intelligent processes embodied by the brain, we are able to gain information, store it, and then use it learn (reduce uncertainty) and gain yet more information. In a similar fashion, through the process of evolution, life has `learned' to become more adapted to the conditions set by Nature. By `learned', I mean that more evolved organisms are better able to respond to the natural world surrounding them. Hence organisms can breathe, visually perceive, hear, smell, reproduce, eat, communicate, conspire and so on, all remarkably intelligent and refined responses to the natural world. Which means that, in its entirety, the evolution of life can be understood as being the on-going manifestation of an intelligence of some kind. Darwin's legacy thus resides in his discovery of the methodology of Nature's inherent intelligence.

Live scan of an autumn leaf. Entropy marches across the leaf surface, destroying once-healthy photosynthetic cells. It is remarkable that neat sun-munching devices like leaves - so crucial for the web of life - are nonetheless discarded in their billions each year. Then again, Nature eventualy recycles them thus ensuring that entropy is circumvented. This is Natural Sophistication at its best.

Lets take this radical idea of `natural intelligence' a little further. Nature - in the form of her laws and her fundamental constants - is such that evolution is fostered or nourished once conditions are `ripe'. These ripe conditions happen to have prevailed upon the Earth. What the human species (and subsequently modern human culture) represents then, is a culmination of the potential capacity of Nature to gain information and construct organisms and organised systems which bear a definite relationship to the rest of the world/Universe. And remember, it does not matter if so-called random mutations are the stuff upon which evolution drives itself. Like all of the other conditions necessary for life to evolve (like the persistent existence of stable stars, the unique value of the gravitational constant, the strength of nuclear forces and so on) mutagenic influences derive from the way Nature is `set up'. It is precisely because Nature - when considered as a kind of ultimate environment - is `tuned for life' as it were, that has allowed evolution to take hold on our planet. The capacity for life was literally coded into the fabric of Nature from the word go. And likewise, consciousness was poised to emerge somewhere along the evolutionary line.

We therefore find ourselves born out of, and into, a smart Universe, whose smartness can now be reflected upon or be mirrored once we acknowledge that Nature is indeed smart. Result? Well, to conceive of Nature as being ultra-smart is surely to alter one's relations to every other piece of natural fabric covering the planet. If we begin to see life on Earth in its totality as reflecting Nature's inherent intelligence, then we soon realise that we must surely have some function and responsibility within such an intentful system. That we latest fully conscious hominids should be privy to the sheer majesty and intentionality of Nature, must indicate a special role for us. Agreed, this view is anthropomorphic and puts Homo sapiens right at the centre of things, yet this is the logical conclusion of holding the view that Nature is an ultra-smart information processing system.

This idea of Natural Intelligence pervading reality becomes even more profound when we consider the evolution of human culture. In particular, our digital and computerised telecommunicational technology is advancing at such a rapid rate, that it is tempting to surmise that this development of information-integration might well be a kind of vehicle through which the intelligence which ultimately fostered it - i.e. Nature - can fully `awaken' and achieve its intent.

If this piece of heresy should also contain some grain of truth then perhaps the rumoured McKennian 2012 Omega Point will in fact be a reality as we fast approach it. Who knows?. It's certainly no more a fantastic scenario than the alleged Big Bang. Indeed, as McKenna has stated, if you can believe that the entire Universe exploded out of nothing then you can believe anything. All I am sure of is the smartness of Nature and that Nature calls all the shots all the time. James `Gaia Hypothesis' Lovelock's assertion that we are destined to be the caretakers of the biosphere might therefore be a considerable understatement. For if we accept that Nature is the most intelligent process we can possibly imagine, then we conscious beings must surely represent the `coming of age' of such an intelligent scheme. If so, then the future could become decidedly interesting, for who knows what surprises Nature has in store for us?

(Article by SGP)

Links to relevant Net sites as follows:

• To explore the concept of the Omega Point take a stroll through Terence McKenna's site.
  
• Alternatively, further metaphysical exploration can be made herein.
  
• Yep, I surely would like to learn more about the Gaia hypothesis.