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“Conservation of Information Made Simple” at ENV

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Evolution News & Views just posted a long article I wrote on conservation of information.

EXCERPT: “In this article, I’m going to follow the example of these books, laying out as simply and clearly as I can what conservation of information is and why it poses a challenge to conventional evolutionary thinking. I’ll break this concept down so that it seems natural and straightforward. Right now, it’s too easy for critics of intelligent design to say, ‘Oh, that conservation of information stuff is just mumbo-jumbo. It’s part of the ID agenda to make a gullible public think there’s some science backing ID when it’s really all smoke and mirrors.’ Conservation of information is not a difficult concept and once it is understood, it becomes clear that evolutionary processes cannot create the information required to power biological evolution.” MORE

TEASER: The article quotes some interesting email correspondence that I had with Richard Dawkins and with Simon Conway Morris, now going back about a decade, but still highly relevant.

Comments
An excellent article, and hard to imagine it's refutable (certainly nobody seems to have tried in any half-convincing way in response to Dembski's previous statements of it). Presumably this would also exclude the validity of all emergence theories explaining life's complexities. They may indeed be shown to explain things, but would require that the capabilities of the systens were implicit in their components, not wholly new. I wonder if Dembski has made any specific references to this, as it is one of the priciple theoretical alternatives to Darwinism and ID.Jon Garvey
August 29, 2012
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dg4 @3 "Perhaps the multiverse exists as an array of possibilities in the mind of God." Isn't that just an extravagant way of describing all design? You could describe this post as choosing between a Universe without my post and a similar Universe with it. With God it has slightly more relavance as he creates the whole show - he thinks of this Universe in preference to all the others he could conceive. But if he is omniscient why would he need to conceive, and then reject, all the myriads of Universes that wouldn't work out? Even we only restrict our efforts to a relatively few possibilities, and unlike God we are not pure Wisdom, which excludes the need for either real of virtual multiverses..Jon Garvey
August 29, 2012
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William Dembski, needful information for reading. thank you. sergiosergiomendes
August 29, 2012
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Bill, good to see your post and I look forward to checking out your article. This is an important area of discussion.Eric Anderson
August 28, 2012
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The idea that this life-supporting universe, with its necessary fine tuning, is the result of a search is an intriguing one. The inventor considers many possibilities, and even builds unsuccessful prototypes, prior to realizing his design. Perhaps the multiverse exists as an array of possibilities in the mind of God.dgw
August 28, 2012
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Dr. Dembski, Here is 'conservation of information' explained so that even complete IDiots (pun intended) like me can understand it: :)
Unevolved Arthropods Found in Amber - August 28, 2012 Excerpt: 230 million years old, 100 million years older than the previous record holders,,, The ancient gall mites are surprisingly similar to ones seen today.,,, “You would think that by going back to the Triassic you’d find a transitional form of gall mite, but no,” Grimaldi said. “Even 230 million years ago, all of the distinguishing features of this family were there—a long, segmented body; only two pairs of legs instead of the usual four found in mites; unique feather claws, and mouthparts.” http://crev.info/2012/08/unevolved-arthropods-in-amber/
bornagain77
August 28, 2012
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Thank you William. Reading it right now.julianbre
August 28, 2012
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