Information as the source of life (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, November 29, 2015, 15:38 (3071 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: My problem is when you and the folks you read try to conflate the interpretive and/or creative mechanism with the information it interprets and/or creates...... And that is also why I pointed out that your statement “life had to start with available dynamic useful information” contradicted your whole philosophy, which is based on the belief that life started when the necessary information was created and used by a universal intelligence. Information, in my view, is not “dynamic” or “useful” (or “functional”) until intelligence makes it so.-Your point is obvious to me and exists behind all my thoughts. Our difference is I assume the inference is understood, and you want exactness in the written matter about it. I've been writing in a shorthand of ideas. I'll try better.-> 
> dhw: We have agreed that ”information and intelligence are two separate items.” Why don't we leave it at that?
> DAVID: Separate terms but the two are totally inter-twined, as above.
> 
> dhw: They are only “totally” intertwined if the universe and life were created by your universal intelligence. As I have said before, inanimate matter is full of information, but the information is useless without intelligence to extract it, process it, and use it. And nobody knows the origin of intelligence.-In your reference to inanimate matter 'the information it is full of' is descriptive. It describes nothing else. Life is process, and requires specialized information to run that process, interpreted automatically or by active intellect.