Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia; Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.
Bio- Informatics
Post 100.September 22, 2019 continued . . .
Body, Soul, and Information
The Program in the Machine
In a chapter on how quantum theory relates to biology, Davies asks, “why do the laws of physics come with informational capabilities beyond anything that Shannon imagined, if nature hasn’t made use of it anywhere in the universe? Has this untapped informational potential sat unexploited by nature for 13.8 billion years just for human engineers to cash in on?” Since he is aware that the implications of that question sound theological, he digs deeper to say, “I have found that if well-established physical theory predicts that something is possible, then nature invariably seems to make use of it. . . . In all cases there was a well-defined place for such a thing in nature.” Then, he hints at his personal interpretation of the role that human nature may play in the future course of evolution. “Quantum mechanics has a place for exponential godlike information management, has nature overlooked to fill it? I don’t think so.” I agree, and speculate that human culture has arisen at this mid-point of the evolutionary arc4 in order to take over the management of enforming the world. Does this mean that the development of our universe is not random & pointless, but intentional & goal-oriented? That’s how it seems to me, but I can’t prove it.
Even non-theistic scientists have admitted the emergence of biology from physics is hard to explain. “Francis Crick once described the origin of life as ‘almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.’” But, if the laws of nature were programmed from the beginning to generate life and mind, then no miraculous interventions would be needed — except of course for the miracle of creation of something from nothing. Yet, Davies couldn’t help using magical terminology when he said, “life conjures coherence and organization from molecular chaos.” However, their materialistic worldview requires most scientists to assume an even greater miracle to allow mindless chaos to produce logical minds, even given unlimited time. The never-ending number PI (π) is not called “irrational” without reason.
Some prominent scientists go to the opposite extreme, from calling biology a miracle, to labeling Life a “cosmic imperative”. Hence, they assume that the universe must be teeming with living organisms. However, ever pragmatic, Davies is not so sanguine about the likelihood of encountering advanced alien brethren. Lacking any evidence, other than non-zero statistical possibilities, he cautions that “there might be only one planet in the observable universe, where the necessary dream run of conditions occurred. My conclusion : habitability does not imply inhabited.” Pouring more cold water on the atheist hope that we may not be alone in the unfathomable emptiness of expanding space, he notes that “given that our own existence on this planet depends on life forming here, it’s entirely possible that the origin of terrestrial life was an extreme outlier, an immense fluke.” Nevertheless, we can say with some assurance, that from our single sample, we can only conclude that the world must have had the potential for at least one example of Life emerging against long odds. My own Enformationism worldview takes a stand in the middle between “cosmic imperative” and “immense fluke” to guess that the emergence of some kind of Life was not an accident, but an intention.
Post 100 continued . . . click Next
Quantum mechanics has a place for . . . godlike information management
NEXT
BACK
Forum
