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

by dhw, Friday, January 24, 2020, 11:33 (1764 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: "My main postulate is that information is strictly tied to an idea, a product, or a message. I cannot see how it is possible to have information prior to the idea, product, or message because information is an abstract representation of those things. How can an abstract representation exist prior to the phenomenon which it represents?”

dhw: I pointed out that information is present in all things and existed long before we came along to extrapolate “abstract representations” from them, i.e. the words that identify all the facts, details, characteristics, properties etc. of the material concerned. Information is totally passive and creates nothing. It takes a mind to analyse, process and use it. But I also bolded the obvious fact that intelligent minds can create information. David wishes to confine the discussion to DNA, and has therefore totally ignored all of the above. I object to the title of this thread because inert information cannot possibly be the source of life.
[…]
David: Instead of entering the back and forth above, one simple statement fits the issue of information. There is descriptive information which a mind can describe, and there is instructional information which can initiate a process like life itself. DNA contains that information and it must come from mental activity, especially because of the enormous complexity of the process of life.

This is at least clearer than the article you quoted, since you have attempted to distinguish between two different types of what you call “information”. I hope you now agree with all the objections to the article that I have raised above.

We are almost at a point of general agreement, except that for the life of me I don’t know why you have to link instructions to information, because it is this attempt to bring the whole universe under the umbrella of the in-word “information” that causes all the “back and forth” confusion. Why don’t you just call instructions “instructions”? Like virtually every form of reality you can think of, instructions CONTAIN information. Why do you need to wave the “information” flag, when in this particular context, all you are saying is that DNA is too complex not to have been designed? The absurdity of the above quote, and the absurdity of the heading of this thread are totally unnecessary. Once you drop the attempt to create this vast umbrella, everything is clear: DNA is too complex not to have been designed. And in your philosophy, the source of life is not information but is an intelligent mind you call God, who did the designing.