Posted on 03/09/2005 1:46:32 PM PST by metacognative
Opinions
There are valid criticisms of evolution
BY DAVID BERLINSKI
"If scientists do not oppose anti-evolutionism," said Eugenie Scott, the executive director of the National Council on Science Education, "it will reach more people with the mistaken idea that evolution is scientifically weak."
Scott's understanding of "opposition" had nothing to do with reasoned discussion. It had nothing to do with reason at all. Discussing the issue was out of the question. Her advice to her colleagues was considerably more to the point: "Avoid debates."
Everyone else had better shut up.
In this country, at least, no one is ever going to shut up, the more so since the case against Darwin's theory retains an almost lunatic vitality. Consider:
• The suggestion that Darwin's theory of evolution is like theories in the serious sciences -- quantum electrodynamics, say -- is grotesque. Quantum electrodynamics is accurate to 13 unyielding decimal places. Darwin's theory makes no tight quantitative predictions at all.
• Field studies attempting to measure natural selection inevitably report weak-to-nonexistent selection effects.
• Darwin's theory is open at one end, because there is no plausible account for the origins of life.
• The astonishing and irreducible complexity of various cellular structures has not yet successfully been described, let alone explained.
• A great many species enter the fossil record trailing no obvious ancestors, and depart leaving no obvious descendants.
• Where attempts to replicate Darwinian evolution on the computer have been successful, they have not used classical Darwinian principles, and where they have used such principles, they have not been successful.
• Tens of thousands of fruit flies have come and gone in laboratory experiments, and every last one of them has remained a fruit fly to the end, all efforts to see the miracle of speciation unavailing.
• The remarkable similarity in the genome of a great many organisms suggests that there is at bottom only one living system; but how then to account for the astonishing differences between human beings and their near relatives -- differences that remain obvious to anyone who has visited a zoo?
If the differences between organisms are scientifically more interesting than their genomic similarities, of what use is Darwin's theory, since its otherwise mysterious operations take place by genetic variations?
These are hardly trivial questions. Each suggests a dozen others. These are hardly circumstances that do much to support the view that there are "no valid criticisms of Darwin's theory," as so many recent editorials have suggested.
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I think you both have the salty description incorrect.
A crystal is a low-information state, low entropy. It doesn't take much to describe a crystal, the lattice descriptor, the origin, and how much salt. One can even tell exactly how many flaws a crystal will have if given the temperature.
A suspension is very complex, high-information, high-entropy state. One must (generally) supply heat to bring a crystal into a suspension; and remove heat to crystallize a suspension.
The more random, the higher the entropy, and the more information needed for description.
Clown Town.
Computer programs make tons of money playing online poker. I'm not sure whether any of them evolved through learning. You can be sure, however, that the random or pseudo-random shuffling of the virtual cards does not interfere with the inevitable outcome. Randomness guarantees the outcome.
The cigarette helped.
I always admit it when I wrong someone. I probably need to go back and post to a few others but if I recall correctly we all laid down our swords last night, or earlier today.
Is it 5 o'clock yet?
I did not suggest that genetic lines of minute life-forms do not diverge with regard to their ability to reproduce. I said none of that.
I said that nobody has demonstrated new species to evolve.
In biology, 'speciation' means 'the evolution of new species.'
Please enligthen us as to your preferred definition of 'species' then.
How does bluffing fit into this model?
Seems like there was a thread a few weeks ago that went pretty deeply into the whole speciation issue. I don't consider hybridization to be a problem for evolution. If anything I think it demonstrates the connectedness of life. Disagreement over taxonomy doesn't mean speciation doesn't happen. There are plenty of debates over whether some creature should be considered one species or another, or whether it's a new species altogether. I consider that to be a strength of science, not a weakness.
I feel confident this must to correct if you say so Doc. And yet I have read that living systems require very high entropy and immense amounts of information. In this particular regard they would appear to resemble a classical gas -- and yet living organisms are not classical gasses. What accounts for the difference?
Thanks so much for writing, Doc!
There's a whole literature (starting with von Neumann and Morgenstern) on blulffing in games. You must bluff (or at least vary your actions) to keep the others from learning about your play.
Though the question is not addressed to me, I can't resist answering anyway. In a word: organization.
What is your take on my question in the following post? Is my thinking flawed? http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1359489/posts?page=198#198
An actual link might have been more helpful than just quoting a page nbr out of what might be some relatively obscure text book. I googled the author and could not find this book or item.
You might have mentioned the phenomenon of certain mosquitos which have developed in the subways of London since 1863. C. pipiens C. molestus were originally of one strand of mosquito but have since diverged and can no longer reproduce when bred. They breed just fine in their own populations thus justifying a conclusion that a new species has developed in less than 150 years.
Oh, but of course that is in one of my text books.
Biology: Concepts and connections Campbell, Reece, Mitchell, Taylor. 2003 Chapter 14 "The Origin of species." page 281
It seems logical. But since I am not a big banger I can't speak to the details. I'm an engineer by training but I have made a living as an engineer since I career hopped in 95. And I have a headache.
I'm not a Big Banger, either. But one day it occurred to me that there was a fatal flaw in the Big Bang theory that was so huge that I wondered if I was missing something.
BTW, I'm an electrical engineer, too. Right now I work at a manufacturing facility keeping things running.
I knew you were not a big banger by your posts. I am mathematically lazy at this point in life (use it or lose it) so I couldn't check the math without a lot of research. If your math is good the logic is sound.
I'll go you one farther, Tamberlane: self-organization. How do you suppose that works? Thanks so much for writing!
That biological life requires immense amounts of information is unequivocal. Information is the reduction of uncertainty (Shannon entropy) in a molecular machine in going from a before state to an after state. It is the action, not the message, and thus we can easily observe that a living organism requires immense information to survive.
Concerning entropy - it depends on which kind we are addressing. Shannon entropy which can be seen like a gumball machine filled with spheres of alternative possibilities in biological life before a communication has been successfully decoded (a selection made) can be very great indeed. It depends however on the channel capacity of the molecular machine - so it can also be efficient. This is one reason autonomy is so important to me.
Thermodynamic entropy, OTOH, works against such ordering or selection as everything moves towards "heat death". But even the reduction of Shannon entropy must pay that thermodynamic tab by releasing energy into the local surroundings.
No gambler would ever tell you his bluffing strategy. We're talking real money here.
LOL!!!! :^)
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