ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

Origin and Evolution of Life 51
of its tail-like flagellum composed of cytoskeletal proteins. Ingestion of flagellae
and their intracellular anchors, basal bodies, are thought to have led to cilia,
centrioles, and microtubules-cytoskeletal structural and organizational elements
which brought the capabilities for cell movement, cytoplasmic organization, and
(apparently) information processing (Figure 3.1). Multiple cilia attached to cell
membranes and extending outward enabled single cell organisms such as
paramecium to swim about in their aqueous medium, greatly expanding their
ability to find food, avoid predators, and increase their horizons. In other
stationary organisms cilia could flow the environmental medium past the
organism, achieving the same results. Within the cytoplasm, cytoskeletal
structures such as centrioles, basal bodies and microtubules organized, oriented,
and transported organelles and materials. The eukaryotic cytoskeleton took on
functions akin to mechanical scaffolding, conveyor lattice, and the cell’s own
nervous system.
Basal bodies, cilia, flagella, and centrioles are assemblies of microtubules,
themselves complex cylindrical assemblies of protein subunits, and are ubiquitous
throughout eukaryotic biology. In these organelles, nine pairs or triplets of
microtubules are arranged in a super-cylinder, which may have an additional
microtubule pair in its center (9+2 or 9+0 arrangements, Figure 3.2). Involvement
of these structures in nearly all instances of dynamic cell activities (mitosis,
growth and differentiation, locomotion, food ingestion or phagocytosis,
cytoplasmic movement etc.) greatly accelerated the capabilities of eukaryotic
cells. Utilizing the chemical energy from mitochondrial ATP, these cytoskeletal
elements appear to have provided not only stable structure and motility, but also a
sophisticated “computer-like” information processing system.
Eukaryotic microbial technology was as different from the basic bacterium as
a main frame computer to an abacus. The eukaryotes flourished, evolved and
solved environmental problems by mixing and merging. Forming new collectives,
they eventually found their way from water to land and air and branched into the
myriad forms of plant and animal life that have since populated the biosphere.
The human brain and nervous system are recent innovations; Homo sapiens
apparently appeared about 50 thousand years ago.
The endosymbiotic theory can explain the nonlinear jump in evolution that
occurred with the advent of eukaryotes, but does have its detractors. For example,
Hyman Hartman (1975) of MIT has noted that, while mitochondria and
chloroplasts are agreed to have originated as free living prokaryotic cells, there is
some question as to the pedigree of basal bodies and centrioles. Sagan-Margulis
(1967) had claimed that:
upon entry into a host, such a symbiot may lose from none to all of
its synthetic capabilities except the ability to replicate its own DNA
and synthesize complementary RNA from that DNA—the sine qua
non of any organism.