ID commentary on animal minds (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, January 16, 2016, 20:07 (3023 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: I have no problem accepting the concept of ‘information', and I would say information exists in any code, material or subject that I can think of. In attempting to analyse the appearance of life and evolution, we are confronted with all kinds of information; our problem is to understand how that information arose, what used it, and how it was used. -The source of the information is the primary thrust of my presentations. I think the process of using it is at an entirely different level. In life we know that cells use information in DNA and its modifying layers. We know that the universe follows 'laws' which we have described. We disagree on the source.-> dhw: Nor do I have any problem accepting that DNA carries information. My problem is with such misleading and confusing claims as “everything is information”, “information as the source of life”, “information runs life” etc.-If you note in my entry on Wheeler, information is discussed in much the same way to which you object. Again there is an understood shorthand: first information, and then some process uses it. Two steps in thought.
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> dhw: I am fully aware of your conviction that God (the top-down planner) planned everything. This means that it is God's computer programme or himself in person (dabbling) that both provides and uses the information, since the cells automatically obey his instructions. Many scientists and philosophers would disagree that your God has provided the instructions. And so what provides and uses the information and how it is used then becomes crucial. Indeed, that is the subject we have been discussing for eight years.-If the information is well-planned, in appearance, and is highly-complex, as it is, I'll stick with my contention that a mind planned and created it. The degree of complexity is discovered to increase year by year. Is there a point at which you might accept the origination through a mind? There will never be absolute proof.