There is an “original intelligence" that receives little attention yet forms the basis of all intelligence.

Living intelligence makes up the foundation of our psychology.

The future of our mental health depends on how artificial intelligence aligns with our living intelligence.

Artificial intelligence makes headlines around the world every day. Topics range from the potential of AI applications that assist humans to regulations governing AI and AI that enhances the human body. Other topics include the challenges posed by identity fraud and perception manipulation.

At the same time, however, there is a “forgotten intelligence” that receives little attention yet forms the basis of all intelligence: cellular intelligence, our original living intelligence.

Why is there such a disparity in the attention given to living versus cultural or technological intelligence? Is it connected to the paradoxical nature of human psychology—the fact that we oscillate between enormous potential for destruction and impressive capacity for learning?

However, technological intelligence is impossible without natural intelligence. The future of our evolution depends on how these two forms of intelligence come together. Will we destroy ourselves, or will we learn to coexist with nearly 10 billion others? This is the first in a series of articles on the living intelligence behind our identity and perception.

The Study of Our Original Intelligence

For now, cellular intelligence can be defined as the emergent regulatory capacity of living cells to process internal and external signals in ways that lead to adaptive organization, homeostatic stability, and goal-directed responses.

This intelligence is evident in processes such as pattern recognition via receptors, signal transduction, bioelectrical coordination, epigenetic modulation, and collective decision-making in multicellular environments.

Studies of bacterial chemotaxis, quorum sensing, morphogenesis, and regeneration demonstrate that cells are not merely passive biochemical machines, but rather dynamic, responsive systems that integrate information over time and space (Reber et al., 2019, 2020, 2023).

Intelligence is understood as an evolutionary continuum, ranging from membrane differentiation and homeostasis in single-celled organisms to complex shape regulation and neural integration in multicellular organisms. Thus, cellular intelligence forms the biological foundation upon which higher forms of cognition, behavior, and consciousness—our psychology—have evolved.

Early Biological Pioneers of Intelligence........

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