fifth monarchy man: Do the bacteria exhibit anything real?

Yes. Note the word "think" is in the title to the Physorg article. The scientists use terms with specific operational definitions such as "associative learning", "anticipatory", "predictive behavior" and "computation".

Predictive Behavior Within Microbial Genetic Networks: We provide evidence for such anticipatory behavior by revealing striking correlations of Escherichia coli transcriptional responses to temperature and oxygen perturbations"”precisely mirroring the covariation of these parameters upon transitions between the outside world and the mammalian gastrointestinal tract. We further show that these internal correlations reflect a true associative learning paradigm, because they show rapid decoupling upon exposure to novel environments.

This is an example of how evolutionary networks (random variation and selection) can "learn", short-term associations rather than long-term adaptation.

Quick questions for Aguy

Do the bacteria exhibit anything real? Are the folks who discovered this scientists or philosophers? Do the bacteria have free will consciousness? Does anyone care?

In hopes that you will read this I put it in a short thread.

I liked what you wrote to Aiguy.

It was very well done. And you make me feel guilty for my part in making the thread too long for you to easily join.

It's a while since I last saw that. A geek classic.

If you like that, you might like this. I saw the original broadcast years ago and about peed my pants at the sheer ridiculousness. Enjoy.