Information as the source of life; not by chance (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, January 05, 2020, 12:43 (1563 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: "Talking about information detached from the translation system which defines it as information doesn’t make sense. (David’s bold)

What does this mean? Do you and he think information doesn’t exist without a system and someone to define it? This is similar to the idea that nothing exists unless we observe it. And I’m sorry, but neither concept makes sense to me.

"Conclusion
I think my argument shows that idealism is true and materialism is false, that random processes do not produce information, and that a mind with an idea is the primary means by which everything comes into existence. One can use it to argue for ID and for teleology in nature. I would also not hesitate to use it as argument in a theological debate."

DAVID: Designed information is the source of life. There is no argument against that concept.

I thought we’d dealt with this argument long ago. Information is facts or details about something. It is present in everything but cannot produce anything. Of course random processes can produce information, but it needs an intelligent mind to extrapolate that information and to use it. What mind and what idea causes a gust of wind to blow a stone off a cliff and kill the person walking on the beach below? You can write a book full of information produced by this random event, including scientific laws, but this has all been extrapolated and named by intelligent minds. Which came first – the information contained in the wind, the stone, the person, or the author’s extraction of information from them in order to explain the event? “Ah!” say your ID-ers, but where did the intelligence come from to create the information and the laws in the first place? That is the unanswerable question: did materials produce intelligence, or did intelligence produce materials? Your comment puts the argument for idealism in a nutshell, without all the pseudo-scientific gobbledygook: in order to produce life (the subject of this thread) an intelligent designer used the information he had created. The materialist can respond by asking where the intelligent designer came from, and by arguing that since we do not know of any intelligence beyond that generated by materials, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that an infinite number of material combinations will eventually produce the intelligence that is able to extrapolate and use information from materials (the basis of science). Needless to say, I sit on the fence between the two explanations.