Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 29, 2020 7:41:22 GMT -8
Bits and Bytes at the Bottom by Ken Pedersen and Jonathan Witt.
The article is based on this book by Ken Pedersen: Modern Science Proves Intelligent Design: The Information System Worldview
The article is a general and theoretical overview. But the point is one that anyone can intuit by perhaps asking: How does an electron know how to behave? Why do they always behave the same? How does any bit of matter or energy — especially in a purposeless and random universe — know how to act from moment to moment?
As has always been my intuition, you can’t bake a cake without flour. Our minds couldn’t suddenly arise from pointless randomness. If they did, materialists would be stating that miracles happen all the time. It seems clear that minds can arise only from a universe pre-built with consciousness in it as an ingredient of some sort.
One information layer rests upon another, which is another idea that makes complete sense:
One could rightly say that this is a general overview, not a proof. And yet this reasoning seems much sounder than that of atheistic materialism. And Pedersen/Witt finish off the article in fine fashion, noting (in my lingo) who the real kooks are:
The article is based on this book by Ken Pedersen: Modern Science Proves Intelligent Design: The Information System Worldview
The article is a general and theoretical overview. But the point is one that anyone can intuit by perhaps asking: How does an electron know how to behave? Why do they always behave the same? How does any bit of matter or energy — especially in a purposeless and random universe — know how to act from moment to moment?
As the renowned theoretical physicist John Wheeler put it, “It from Bit.” That is, the subatomic realm, along with the laws and constants of physics, which guide and shape physical interactions large and small, are shot through with information. And the information isn’t just along for the ride. The material it is literally in-formed by immaterial in-formation. Or as Wheeler elaborated in a fall 1989 paper,1 “It from Bit symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has at bottom — at a very deep bottom, in most instances — an immaterial source and explanation.”
As has always been my intuition, you can’t bake a cake without flour. Our minds couldn’t suddenly arise from pointless randomness. If they did, materialists would be stating that miracles happen all the time. It seems clear that minds can arise only from a universe pre-built with consciousness in it as an ingredient of some sort.
One information layer rests upon another, which is another idea that makes complete sense:
Information All the Way Down
Think about it. There is a form of digital computing constantly whirring along at the quantum-field level of reality. And that digital computing proceeds upward through the information-processing capacities that emerge to generate, guide, and allow for atoms, radiant energy, hydrogen clouds, galaxies, stars, stardust, planets, molecular chemistry, the DNA-RNA information-coding system, a living cell, multi-cellular life, ecosystems, and ultimately conscious human minds with a capacity for perception, memory, emotions, learning, curiosity, imagination, free will, creativity, and language.
Since these patterns overlap and interfuse one another, the boundary line between one information layer and another is not always neat and discrete, but we can still profitably delineate them. Below the quantum layer — or we might say, interpenetrating and informing the quantum layer — are the rule sets governing the fundamental forces of electromagnetism, gravity, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Without those precisely tuned rule sets, there are no atoms more complicated than hydrogen — and really, good luck even getting hydrogen. Also, no stars and galaxies, no planets, no life.
Above the level of quantum “particles” is the atomic layer of information processing, where the various atoms combine into the myriad of chemical compounds that make stars and a planet such as Earth possible. Other layers include the information-processing found in DNA and RNA, the accompanying layer found in the amino acids that code for proteins, the higher-level information-processing systems at the cellular level, and on up the hierarchy to the extraordinary information-processing that occurs in conscious creatures such as ourselves, able to unravel and marvel over these layered networks.
Think about it. There is a form of digital computing constantly whirring along at the quantum-field level of reality. And that digital computing proceeds upward through the information-processing capacities that emerge to generate, guide, and allow for atoms, radiant energy, hydrogen clouds, galaxies, stars, stardust, planets, molecular chemistry, the DNA-RNA information-coding system, a living cell, multi-cellular life, ecosystems, and ultimately conscious human minds with a capacity for perception, memory, emotions, learning, curiosity, imagination, free will, creativity, and language.
Since these patterns overlap and interfuse one another, the boundary line between one information layer and another is not always neat and discrete, but we can still profitably delineate them. Below the quantum layer — or we might say, interpenetrating and informing the quantum layer — are the rule sets governing the fundamental forces of electromagnetism, gravity, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Without those precisely tuned rule sets, there are no atoms more complicated than hydrogen — and really, good luck even getting hydrogen. Also, no stars and galaxies, no planets, no life.
Above the level of quantum “particles” is the atomic layer of information processing, where the various atoms combine into the myriad of chemical compounds that make stars and a planet such as Earth possible. Other layers include the information-processing found in DNA and RNA, the accompanying layer found in the amino acids that code for proteins, the higher-level information-processing systems at the cellular level, and on up the hierarchy to the extraordinary information-processing that occurs in conscious creatures such as ourselves, able to unravel and marvel over these layered networks.
One could rightly say that this is a general overview, not a proof. And yet this reasoning seems much sounder than that of atheistic materialism. And Pedersen/Witt finish off the article in fine fashion, noting (in my lingo) who the real kooks are:
Multiverse Magic
All of this means that the victory lap for the scientific materialists has been put on hold, indefinitely. Instead, they are scrambling to save their accidental universe.
Also, there is an irony in the way many of them are going about it. After generations of labeling their opponents as irrational and anti-science, many of these materialists now appeal to a kind of supernatural genie to save their accidental universe — the claim that beyond the space and time of our universe is a myriad — perhaps an infinity — of other universes, with ours simply being one of the lucky ones fine-tuned to allow for advanced life. In essence, thanks to the genie known as the multiverse, everything happens somewhere, so why not humans here?
Yes, that is their solution. They dream of genie.
All of this means that the victory lap for the scientific materialists has been put on hold, indefinitely. Instead, they are scrambling to save their accidental universe.
Also, there is an irony in the way many of them are going about it. After generations of labeling their opponents as irrational and anti-science, many of these materialists now appeal to a kind of supernatural genie to save their accidental universe — the claim that beyond the space and time of our universe is a myriad — perhaps an infinity — of other universes, with ours simply being one of the lucky ones fine-tuned to allow for advanced life. In essence, thanks to the genie known as the multiverse, everything happens somewhere, so why not humans here?
Yes, that is their solution. They dream of genie.
