Philosopher AI - Do bacteria not reproduce asexually? Do plants not reproduce asexually?

Do bacteria not reproduce asexually? Do plants not reproduce asexually?

What does it mean for an organism to reproduce asexually? What is the process of reproduction in humans, with regard to sex and sexual intercourse? I would posit that this human reproductive process involves two individuals, each contributing genetic material to produce offspring. If one were to remove either individual from this scenario, then their contribution of genes would not be passed on. This seems like a necessary feature for something to qualify as sexual reproduction.

7 Jun 2021, 11:03

Let us look at other organisms. The process of bacterial reproduction is different from humans -- their genetics are stored in a single cell, rather than two distinct cells. Let us further assume that this one-celled organism reproduces by dividing itself into two separate cells.

7 Jun 2021, 11:03

Let us look at what this would mean for the genetic contribution of each bacterium. Both cells will have identical genomes, but in order to reproduce sexually, the genes must be different (and located on two distinct chromosomes). This does not seem to qualify as sexual reproduction.

7 Jun 2021, 11:03

What about plant reproduction? If we look at the process of asexual reproduction in plants, then it seems to not involve two distinct organisms (as is necessary for sexual reproduction). Instead, a single organism produces another identical copy. This does seem like a good definition of 'asexual' -- that there is only one parent.

7 Jun 2021, 11:03

We have established that bacteria reproduce asexually, by dividing into two cells which are genetically identical. This is not sexual reproduction, since there are no distinct parent organisms contributing DNA to the offspring.

7 Jun 2021, 11:03

We have established that plants reproduce asexually by producing genetically identical offspring (clones) of the parent. This is also not sexual reproduction, since there are no distinct organisms contributing DNA to the offspring.

7 Jun 2021, 11:03

You are getting an AI to generate text on different topics.

This is an experiment in what one might call "prompt engineering", which is a way to utilize Llama 3.1 405b, a neural network trained by Meta.

Llama is a language model. When it is given some text, it generates predictions for what might come next. It is remarkably good at adapting to different contexts, as defined by a prompt (in this case, hidden), which sets the scene for what type of text will be generated.

Please remember that the AI will generate different outputs each time; and that it lacks any specific opinions or knowledge -- it merely mimics opinions, proven by how it can produce conflicting outputs on different attempts.

Feel free to share interesting outputs to /r/philosopherAI on Reddit.

by Murat Ayfer