ID commentary on animal minds (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, January 14, 2016, 13:23 (3236 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Vedral says “everything is information”, in which case the source of information could only be information. This is in line with the thread you called “Information as the source of life”, though I would like to think you would phrase it differently now. Yes, information is very important. Matter is also very important (is there any form of information that could not be called “informative”?). And the mechanism that interprets information is also very important. Consequently, the statement that “everything is information” is a typical example of the indiscriminate and confusing use of this word that I keep complaining about and will continue to complain about whenever it crops up.-DAVID: What you keep avoiding by complaining about the way 'information as the basis of everything' is presented, is that it carries the implication that a mind carried or development this information that started creation of the universe and the start of life. The information, as you note, cannot come from itself. Someone made the plans.-You might just as well claim that whatever exists “carries the implication” that a mind created it. Theists will agree, and atheists will not. Such statements are as groundless and pointless as “everything is information”. The existence or non-existence of God is the basic question we come back to in nearly all our discussions, and it will not be resolved by the continued misleading and confusing use of the word “information”, which was the point I wished to reiterate in these posts.