ID commentary on animal minds (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, January 15, 2016, 20:01 (3235 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: You keep resisting the issue of information like it is poison. 
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> dhw: No, no, no, no, no, no. How often do I have to repeat that my issue is with the misleading and confusing use of the term, as if somehow it provides an explanation: “everything is information”, information “as the source of life”. This is on a par with Dawkins' “natural selection...explains the whole of life”. It isn't/doesn't, and such vague generalizations should never be uttered.-Again, you have discussed all around the issue without coming to terms with the concept of 'information'. Does it exist as a background in DNA codes and modifiers? What do you think is its importance in our attempting to analyze the appearance of life and evolution?
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> DAVID: If you will note in my entry on Free Will , Top Down or Bottom Up, George Ellis demonstrates that Top down is a valid concept. I've always found my thinking consistent with his.
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> dhw: That does not mean information is everything, or information is the source of life.-Have you read Ellis' essay? What is the function of DNA, if not to carry information? -> dhw: Everyone will agree that information exists, but on its own it achieves and creates nothing. The crucial issues are what uses it, how it is used and, ultimately, where it comes from.-Your statement is correct in part. The information exists. It is not 'crucial to discuss what uses it'. That is obviously all the cells which respond to their instructions in their DNA. Where it comes from is what I am trying to propose, which for me is top-down mental planning.