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And that drills down into my point.

"alive" and "intelligent" shouldn't by synonyms. We should reserve the word "intelligent" for a certain considerably higher level of ability and complexity than can be ascribed to most anything living. When you say every living system is intelligent, the word ceases to add any information and you might as well just say "alive" and drop "intelligent".



For practical purposes, I get you. But if it is the same essence at its very core, maybe we shouldn't separate them so vigorously when we think about it philosophically.


And this is where much of philosophy ends up, coming to an agreement (or not) as to the boundaries and conditions where a term should be applied.




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