[js1138]

"There's nothing magic about complexity"

I just got Wolfram's "New Science" book as a birthday present. I had to look up what he says about evolution, since some on FR said he disputed evolution as a source of complexity.

What he says, in a nutshell, is that irreducible complexity can arise from very simple programs, and that a very simple program can produce a noncomputible output -- that is to say, there can be no shortcut or formula that predicts the outcome -- only way to know is to run the program.

Perhaps I am simple minded, but I interpret this to mean that things can exist that cannot be designed, because the process that produces them is immune from prediction. It's a very interesting asssertion, that a deterministic, binary process with just a handful of rules, can produce an infinitely complex output.

Wolfram equates genes with these simple kinds of programs, and assumes that natural selection prunes them.

[VadeRetro]

What he [Wolfram] says, in a nutshell, is that irreducible complexity can arise from very simple programs, and that a very simple program can produce a noncomputible output -- that is to say, there can be no shortcut or formula that predicts the outcome -- only way to know is to run the program.

You'd think we'd have absorbed that idea by now. People have been talking about fractals for decades. I may have to give Wolfram a look. Some people are impressed with him and some aren't.