My latest paper, “Measuring Active Information in Biological Systems,” was released today at BIO-Complexity. Read on for more information about the paper, what it means, and why it is important.
Intelligent Design
The Argument from Evil is Absurd
Jerry and I are having a constructive exchange on the problem of evil. My argument starts when Jerry asks me to define “good.” Jerry, the issue is not how one would define “good” in any particular situation. The issue is whether it is possible to define good in a way that is not grounded in Read More…
Archaea discoverer Carl Woese’s theological reflections in old age
It’s a good question whether Woese would have recognized the Archaea for what they were, had he not been in the habit of thinking for himself. Maybe he would have just been satisfied to shoehorn them into the conventional scheme somewhere.
Stuart Newman, one of the Third Way evolution scientists, on why COVID-19 is deadly to seniors
Maybe viral “cold case” detective work will become a new specialty. Newman agree that seniors should be avoid public gatherings but doesn’t think mass quarantine of the entire population is the best strategy because it prevents the development of herd immunity.
Friends point us to this handy science-friendly summary of what is known about COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) as a virus. Updated on an ongoing basis.
New origin of life book argues, even the simplest life forms are extraordinarily complex
Rob Stadler: By studying the simplest forms of life and laboratory efforts to synthesize life, we know that the simplest living organisms are extraordinarily complex. Al life contains highly interdependent subsystems and hierarchical layers of information that flows between the subsystems.
Michael Egnor: If your brain were cut in half, would you still be one person?
Roger Sperry’s Nobel Prize-winning split-brain research convinced him that the mind and free will are real.
Terry Scambray: A review of Mike Flannery’s book, Nature’s Prophet, on Alfred Russel Wallace
(Wallace, Darwin-s co-theorist, was a working-class stiff whom Darwin’s set elbowed out. He was not a materialist (naturalist) and he thought evolution could be consistent with meaning and spirituality. Darwin abhorred such ideas. This review was originally published at New Oxford Review.)
Vividbleau: The Problem of Evil is More of a Problem for an Atheist than a Theist
VB sums his chain of reasoning below. And very nicely done reasoning it is too. And then comes this: The problem of evil is more of a problem for the atheist than for the theist. He is right of course. But can anyone tell me why his is right. EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS IS VB’S: I Read More…
New Study Claims SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus Originated Naturalistically
A recent study done by an international collaboration of five scientists, and published in the scientific journal nature medicine, has concluded that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (also known as HCoV-19), responsible for the current global pandemic, originated naturalistically rather than via laboratory manipulation. Here I review their methods and compare their research with the claims made. (read more …)
Eric Holloway: A scientific test for true intelligence
A scientific test should identify precisely what humans can do that computers cannot, avoiding subjective opinion: The “broken checkerboard” is not the ultimate scientific test for intelligence that we need. But it is a truly scientific test in the sense that it is capable of falsifying the theory that the mind is reducible to computation. Read More…
Claim: 800,000-year-old tooth clarifies human origins
If we ignore the overall uncertainty.
Eric Holloway: What’s hard for computers is easy for humans
We often hear that what’s hard for humans is easy for computers. But it turns out that many kinds of problems are exceedingly hard for computers to solve. This class of problems, known as NP-Complete (NPC), was independently discovered by Stephen Cook and Leonid Levin.
Human evolution changes dramatically—again!
The long article behind the paywall refers to the “increasingly outdated concept of what constitutes a species,” “just one of dozens of competing definitions.” Increasingly outdated and uncertain, yes. But remember, the Darwin revolution was about—wait for it!—On the Origin of SPECIES.
At Aeon: Dark matter search derailed by dogma?
It’s a lot like Darwinian evolution except that, in this case, people are willing to talk about it.