Evolutionary Computing: An Audit of Smuggled Information

Baylor University, Charles Ofria, Christoph Adami, Computational Sciences, Darwinian evolution, David Thomas, Denmark, displacement, Evolution, evolutionary computing, Evolutionary Informatics Lab, George Montañez, Harvard University, Iain Strachan, information, Intelligent Design, Isak Dinesen, Jakob Wolf, Kitzmiller v. Dover, Leo Kadanoff, Michael Behe, My Personal History with Information (series), Nature (journal), Niels Bohr, Niels Bohr Institute, Richard Dawkins, Richard E. Lenski, Robert J. Marks II, Robert T. Pennock, smuggling, Steiner trees, Thomas Schneider, University of Copenhagen, William Dembski, Winston Ewert
The most significant stop for me in Denmark was a lecture that Jakob Wolf arranged for me to give at the Niels Bohr Institute. Source
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The Evolution of Specified Complexity

algorithmic coding functions, American Scientific Affiliation, bookkeeping, Cambridge University Press, Charles Thaxton, Conservation of Information, crystals, Dembski’s Theorem, Discovery Institute, Evolution, improbability, information, Intelligent Design, laws of nature, Leslie Orgel, mathematics, My Personal History with Information (series), No Free Lunch, Noam Chomsky, Paul Nelson, philosophers, probabilities, R. A. Fisher, Rob Koons, Roger Olsen, specified complexity, statistical inference, Stephen Meyer, The Design Inference, The Mystery of Life’s Origin, The Origins of Life, University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame, University of Texas, Walter Bradley, Whitworth College, William A. Dembski, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Smith
Wolfgang Smith’s excitement about conservation of complex specified information or specified complexity was not widely shared. Source
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Philosophy, Theology, and an Inference to Design

Alexander Hall, Arthur Fine, Bill Wimsatt, David Hull, David Malament, design detection, Divorce, doctoral studies, Douglas Axe, Edward Teller, Evolution, Intelligent Design, J. Gresham Machen, Jonathan Wells, mathematics, Michael Behe, My Personal History with Information (series), natural theology, Northwestern University, Paul Nelson, Paul Teller, Phillip E. Johnson, philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton University, probability, Sisyphus, specification, specified complexity, Stephen Meyer, The Design Inference, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Pittsburgh, William Paley, Winston Ewert
My dissertation on the logic of conditionals came to seems like the rock of Sisyphus.  Source
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An Elevator Pitch About What Information Is

communication, elevator pitch, epistemologists, Fred Dretske, information, Inquiry (book), Intelligent Design, John Archibald Wheeler, John Horgan, Logic and the Flow of Information, MIT, My Personal History with Information (series), naturalists, physical causality, possibilities, Robert Stalnaker, Scientific American, scientific reasoning, semantic content, Shannon information, Stanford University, teleology
The conception of information as ruling out possibilities allows for teleological as well as non-teleological processes to generate information. Source
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Three Replies to the “Who Designed the Designer?” Objection

beginning, complex entities, cosmology, designer, DNA, Dunkirk, Energy, engines, evolutionary theory, fine-tuning, French recipes, infinite regress, information, initial entropy, Intelligent Design, matter, mind, neo-Darwinian mechanism, Ockham’s razor, origin of life, Richard Dawkins, software, Stephen Meyer, Stonehenge, The God Delusion, The Telegraph, uncaused cause, universe, Worldview
Suppose scientists did formulate a viable materialistic explanation for the origin of life. Couldn’t someone ask for an account of the origin of matter itself? Source
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Discovering a Design Argument Based on Biological Information

A. E. Wilder-Smith, Biochemical Predestination, biochemistry, cassette tapes, Charles Thaxton, Chemistry, Dean Kenyon, Energy, Foundation for Thought and Ethics, Gary Steinman, information, Intelligent Design, Jon Buell, Lake Thun, Man’s Origin — Man’s Destiny, mathematics, My Personal History with Information (series), Of Pandas and People, origin of life, Philosophical Library, Roger Olsen, San Francisco State University, Switzerland, Technology, The Creation of Life, The Mystery of Life’s Origin, University of Chicago, University of Helsinki, Walter Bradley
Charles Thaxton, along with Walter Bradley and Roger Olsen, wrote what arguably was the first official book of the intelligent design movement. Source
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Information in Biology: A Mystery for Naturalism

A. E. Wilder-Smith, Apologetics, biological complexity, biology, Chinese Room, creationists, Faith & Science, function, genotype, information, information processing, Intelligent Design, John Searle, Marcel Schützenberger, Martin M. Kaplan, Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution, My Personal History with Information (series), naturalism, Paul S. Moorhead, phenotype, semantics, Stanislaw Ulam, The Creation of Life, University of Illinois at Chicago, William Dembski, Wistar Symposium, Young Earth Creationism
Biology was giving us computer programming and symbolic codes which, by mapping functional structures to functional structures, exhibited a tacit semantics.  Source
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My History with Information: Opening Pandora’s Box

C.S. Lewis, Carl Sagan, Christianity, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Close Encounters: A Better Explanation, Douglas Axe, Duane Gish, Evolution, extraterrestrials, Francis Schaeffer, G. K. Chesterton, Henry Morris, Institute for Creation Research, Intelligent Design, John Warwick Montgomery, My Personal History with Information (series), naturalism, New Age, Pandora’s box, Stephen Meyer, Steven Spielberg, UFOs, University of Illinois, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Illinois Chicago Circle, William Dembski
Naturalism is like a Pandora’s box in that all of scientific explanation must be kept inside it. Source
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So, You Say that No Cosmologists Have Ever Claimed the Universe Came from Nothing?

Alexander Vilenkin, Boltzmann brain, Borde-Guth-Vilenkin, cosmologists, cosmology, Everettian universe, fine-tuning, Hartle-Hawking model, Ijjas-Steinhardt model, inflationary string landscape, Intelligent Design, John Leslie, knowledge, Lawrence Krauss, metalevels, observer-selection effect, past-eternality, physics, quantum cosmology, quantum mechanics, Samson, scientific reasoning, Sean Carroll, Stephen Hawking, Stephen Meyer, temporal beginning, The Grand Design, The Telegraph, universe, Vilenkin model
Like mighty Samson of old, in a single-handed effort physicist Bruce Gordon responded to 1,870+ comments. Source
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Birds on the Move: Awe at the Wonders Overhead

amplitude, animals, Arctic terns, barometric pressure, bats, birds, Brown University, convergent evolution, Current Biology, Engineering, flapping, Flight, Flight (documentary), geese, geolocator, Illustra Media, Intelligent Design, Kenneth S. Breur, light, nocturnal migration, Olivia Pomerenck, PNAS, powered flight, predators, starlings, stars, turbulence, V formation, zoology
Migrating birds like geese and ibises often fly in a V formation. It’s a memorable sight for birdwatchers looking up into the sky. Source
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