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摘要

Speaking to Richard Webb, Sean Carroll wonders whether bacteria have decision-making power or agency. Arguably, the earliest known "decision-making" in the burgeoning tree of life occurs with chemotaxis: single-celled life forms propelling themselves in response to a chemical stimulus, for example towards sources of nutrients. Webb later quotes researcher Larissa Albantakis, who argues that the apparently deliberative quality of our agency sets it apart from this: it "is not just reflexes". But bacterial chemotaxis is more than a single reflex action. It is a response to an environment that results in the selection, over alternatives, of one near-optimum direction to move in.