Is the Galton Board evidence for intelligent design of the universe?

_{Denyse O'Leary

January 16, 2023

Intelligent Design, Physics}

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Ken Francis writes: “Proof that God placed order out of chaos in the universe. Each ball has a 50-50 chance of bouncing right or left off of each peg as it traverses the board, but every time the result is a bell curve. More proof of Intelligent Design.”

The comments are interesting.

Hat tip: Ken Francis, co-author with Theodore Dalrymple of The Terror of Existence: From Ecclesiastes to Theatre of the Absurd

Comments

Folks, the Quincunx shows by striking demonstration the depth to which logic of structure and quantity pervades our world and points onward to the utter, eerie universality of core mathematics in any possible world as a necessary being structure; the very same issue Eugene Wigner highlighted. The world is so mathematically pervaded, indeed possible being is so mathematically pervaded that it is manifestly akin to mind rather than to utterly non rational chaos; indeed, in many cases, randomness reveals an underlying ordered structure, as this very case demonstrates. Onward, lieth statistical thermodynamics, via the classic case of 500 or 1,000 coins and their distribution, thence the threshold search space challenge at the core of ID, how to get to FSCO/I expressive bit patterns by the blind chance and mechanical necessity the Galton Board illustrates. That context is remarkable, not trivial and readily dismissible. KFkairosfocus_{January 16, 2023
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Yes, they do. They is only one way to bounce left every time and fall in the far left column*. There are 11 ways to bounce left 10 times and right one and land in the second column. They are 462 ways (pathways) to land in one of the middle columns. That number is a combinatorial number, called 11 choose 6 (abbreviated 11C6). I'd be glad to explain more if you like, but maybe you were just checking on that fact. Combinatorial numbers show up all sorts of places , like computing the probability of poker hands, and also in the binomial theorem for (a + b) ^ n, such as (x + 2)^4. *This device seems to have some extra columns because some of the balls can "escape" to the far left or right. The devices I've seen have forced the balls into one of the permissible columns.Viola Lee_{January 16, 2023
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VL@7 Those numbers do not indicate the possible pathways, right?Origenes_{January 16, 2023
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Is The Galton Board Evidence For Intelligent Design Of The Universe?
Actually, it disproves Einstein's objection that God doesn't play with dice. LOL Apparently, God loves probability, butterflies in Brazil, permutations in genetics, and all sorts of fun stuff! But seriously, no, I don't think probabilities have anything to do with intelligent design. Intelligent Design is simply approaching a poorly understood phenomenum as if it were intelligently designed rather than random junk, some of which just happens to work and most of it doesn't. -QQuerius_{January 16, 2023
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It's more precise than that: the "many" are, mathematically, the combinatorial numbers as illustrated by Pascal's triangle. If you look closely at the video, the expected numbers are printed under each peg, and the last row is the 11th. For the 11th row, the numbers are 1 11 55 165 330 462 462 330 165 55 11 1, which adds up to 2^11, or 2048. Therefore, for instance, the odds of being in one of the two middle columns is 462/2048 = 22.5 %.Viola Lee_{January 16, 2023
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There are but a few pathways that end up in either of the side pockets, while many pathways lead to the middle pockets. If only the side pockets are filled up we would know that the system was rigged.Origenes_{January 16, 2023
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re 2, to JVL. As Fast E says, "Given enough falling pieces, the results revert to the mean, allowing a precise “prediction” of the bell shape." Simpler example: throw a six-sided die 6 million times, and graph the results. You will have approximately one million of each number. In many situations probabilities express a pattern with enough repetitions. I'm not sure how that has anything to do with ID, or "emergence."Viola Lee_{January 16, 2023
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to FastE at 3. I can't see anything odd about agreeing with what I wrote in 1, as I just described the mathematical concepts being illustrated. Also the link to wherever the quote came from doesn't work. I'd be interested in seeing it.Viola Lee_{January 16, 2023
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I oddly have to agree with 1 & 2 here: the "bell curve" is merely an artefact of the probabilities involved at each step down. Given enough falling pieces, the results revert to the mean, allowing a precise "prediction" of the bell shape. You might even say that the bell curve "emerges" from the probability rule. This is similar to how the gas laws "emerge" from the random movement of molecules in a container: individual behaviour trends to statistical definiteness as N becomes large. That doesn't give creative powers to "emergence", so don't assume this supports the, "consciousness emerges from the brain" meme, or the, "complex life emerges from randomness" magic.Fasteddious_{January 16, 2023
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Random chance is a proof of intelligent design? If you think that then there really is no point debating the science or mathematics involved at all.JVL_{January 16, 2023
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This is a physical illustration of Pascal's Triangle, combinatorial numbers, and a binomial distribution. It's mathematical foundation goes back to 2 + 2 = 4. I used to explain this to high school students.Viola Lee_{January 16, 2023
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