Irreducible Complexity Pt. 2 (Introduction)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Friday, January 08, 2010, 01:02 (5230 days ago) @ dhw

In order to avoid any misunderstandings, I don't have a problem with the idea that chance governs many events within the universe and within our own world. It's only the comprehensiveness of your first statement that puzzles me. And this leads me to the last puzzle for today. Again under 'Programming the Universe', you say Lloyd answers the question "How does complexity arise?" by modifying the paradigm from a "mechanical machine" to "a machine that processes information". Doesn't this answer increase the likelihood of an intelligence within the universe, as opposed to its operating at random?-We need to keep separate the idea of "physical information" and what we're used to seeing for information. In my area--information science--information is described as what we extract from data. When I build a function to describe the months sales data, I'm extracting all the information from the collected transactions. In order to extract data, there must be judgment about what is "good" and "bad" data. I have to gloss over some mathematical details, but in short, quantum systems actually *create information!* And yes, I do mean "created." When they talk about quantum mechanics being unintuitive, this is exactly what causes the mental implosion for many people. Quantum particles are your "monkeys," except instead of being at a typewriter they're behind a computer screen--writing a program. (A detail for later.) So in short, no decision needs to be made concerning data or to extract information, the laws of physics are deterministic in this regard as they amplify quantum processes to a visible level.-The next question here might be, what exactly is "information processing?" This answer is simple: When two particles collide, they have data; direction, velocity, energy, etc. When they collide, they exchange this data and information is created. (processed) -The final answer here, is that the universe viewed as a machine that processes information requires no more or less intelligence than any other physical view that has come before.

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"