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Life's
Conservation Law:
Why Darwinian Evolution
Cannot Create Biological
Information
Bruce Gordon &
William Dembski
[COMMENT: Well, the fight is on, and getting no less
noisy. But I am firmly on the side of these Intelligent Design folks who are edging
toward the metaphysical aspects of the problem.
See
Personality, Empiricism, and God (PEG),
on the spiritual and metaphysical foundations of natural science.
Chance evolution cannot account for biological information,
and worse, it cannot account for "cause". Again, see PEG above. Click
the url for the PDF document - 39 pp. Has some math, but not necessary for
understanding most of the basic ideas.
E. Fox]
Our newest paper presents our strongest information-theoretic challenge to
Darwinism to date: “Life’s Conservation Law: Why Darwinian Evolution Cannot
Create Biological Information,” by William A. Dembski and Robert J. Marks II,
forthcoming chapter in Bruce L. Gordon and William A. Dembski, eds., The
Nature of Nature: Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science (Wilmington,
Del.: ISI Books, 2009).
http://www.designinference.com/documents/2009.05.ConsInfo_NoN_v15a.pdf
1 The Creation of Information
2 Biology’s Information Problem
3 The
Darwinian Solution
4 Computational vs. Biological Evolution
5 Active
Information
6 Three Conservation of Information Theorems
7 The Law of
Conservation of Information
8 Applying LCI to Biology
9 Conclusion: “A
Plan for Experimental Verification”
ABSTRACT: Laws of nature are
universal in scope, hold with unfailing regularity, and receive support from a
wide array of facts and observations. The Law of Conservation of Information
(LCI) is such a law. LCI characterizes the information costs that searches incur
in outperforming blind search. Searches that operate by Darwinian selection, for
instance, often significantly outperform blind search. But when they do, it is
because they exploit information supplied by a fitness functioninformation that
is unavailable to blind search. Searches that have a greater probability of
success than blind search do not just magically materialize. They form by some
process. According to LCI, any such search-forming process must build into the
search at least as much information as the search displays in raising the
probability of success. More formally, LCI states that raising the probability
of success of a search by a factor of q/p (> 1) incurs an
information cost of at least log(q/p). LCI shows that information
is a commodity that, like money, obeys strict accounting principles. This paper
proves three conservation of information theorems: a function-theoretic, a
measure-theoretic, and a fitness-theoretic version. These are representative of
conservation of information theorems in general. Such theorems provide the
theoretical underpinnings for the Law of Conservation of Information. Though not
denying Darwinian evolution or even limiting its role in the history of life,
the Law of Conservation of Information shows that Darwinian evolution is
inherently teleological. Moreover, it shows that this teleology can be measured
in precise information-theoretic terms.* * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * *
Date Posted - 0008/07/2009 - Date
Last Edited -
08/07/2009