The Centrality of information (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, March 22, 2015, 23:13 (3324 days ago) @ David Turell

Another discussion of the importance of information from the beginning of the universe and of life:-http://potiphar.jongarvey.co.uk/2014/09/30/conservation-of-information-evolution-etc/-"Kurt Gödel's logical objection to Darwinian evolution:-"The formation in geological time of the human body by the laws of physics (or any other laws of similar nature), starting from a random distribution of elementary particles and the field is as unlikely as the separation of the atmosphere into its components. The complexity of the living things has to be present within the material [from which they are derived] or in the laws [governing their formation].
 As quoted in H. Wang. “On `computabilism' and physicalism: Some Problems.” in Nature's Imagination, J. Cornwall, Ed, pp.161-189, Oxford University Press (1995).-"Gödel's argument is that if evolution is unfolding from an initial state by mathematical laws of physics, it cannot generate any information not inherent from the start - and in his view, neither the primaeval environment nor the laws are information-rich enough. In other words, either information must be added later, or some currently invisible front-loading would be necessary. The one mathematical impossibility, he says, is the spontaneous generation of the (specified) complexity of life simply by random variation and selection from nothing.-
"Conservation of Information entails that as we regress biological information back in time, the amount of information to be accounted for never diminishes and may actually increase.-"Accordingly, ateleological views of evolution (and come to that, of the whole history of the universe, of which life is just the most troubling example) require that all the information we see has to be present “in embryonic form, at the Big Bang and at every moment thereafter.” That sounds congruent with some TE and ID “frontloaded” views of evolution, but where in the Big Bang could such information be found?-
"So where is it? How is it represented? How does it unfold? The environment is sure to figure into any answer to these questions. Yet, merely invoking the environment as evolution's information source is, without further elaboration, empty talk, on the order of invoking the interstate highway system as the reason for Walmart's business success.-"As an example he pictures a robotic machine that lifts Scrabble pieces out of the box to spell out Richard Dawkins' celebrated phrase, “METHINKSITISLIKEAWEASEL”. That machine is part of the Scrabble set's environment, but that does not make “environment” in any sense a scientific explanation."