Information as the source of life (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, November 28, 2015, 15:00 (3072 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: I have never denied the importance of information, or that DNA is full of it! I have simply complained about its indiscriminate and confusing use by yourself and other commentators.-Your problem and mine is my assumption ( and those of the folks I read), that when useful information is mentioned as a source of life's organization and controls of its activities, it is obvious that there must be an interpretation mechanism for that information. And it is also important to recognize that the mechanism may well be automatic, as a computer reads input information. It can also be an intelligent reader as a human reading plans. And it must be recognized that functional specified complex information is usually the product of intelligence. Perhaps you have not thought of information and its relationship to intelligence in this way.-> dhw: On Thursday, however, you acknowledged: “I have been unclear in my discussion. [...] This is why you are the editor and I am the writer. Information and intelligence are two separate items.” It should have been champagne all round.-No champagne. I now see all the ramifications of information and intelligence in my mind were not made clear on Thursday.-> dhw: Or are you now defining your God as universal information instead of universal intelligence? -This is why I realized you have not thought thru the implications. Things were assumed by writers that you were not assuming. 
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> dhw: We have agreed that ”information and intelligence are two separate items.” Why don't we leave it at that?-Separate terms but the two are totally inter-twined, as above.