Intelligent Design: A hypothesis that given features of life v non-life are explained by an intelligent cause, rather than by an undirected process such as natural selection.
We are almost there, but I want to reconsider one final component of the definition. That is the phrase "life v non-life"; I'd like to see in your own words what you mean by that. I've been taking it in the sense of 'why are things this way, and not that way' .. in other words, any feature of existence or of reality can be deemed a "feature of life v non-life" in some sense or other. Stated yet differently, everything is life or non-life or some variation/subset/quality thereof.
But, it occurred to me that you may intend to signify something more narrow by this contrast. So, I want to see what precisely you mean by "life v non-life" (and, for that matter, I'd like to know why you generally phrase it "life v non-life/death in nature").
If we can dispense with this issue for the purposes at hand, then we can finally move to defining "panspermia" and onward.
But, it occurred to me that you may intend to signify something more narrow by this contrast. So, I want to see what precisely you mean by "life v non-life" (and, for that matter, I'd like to know why you generally phrase it "life v non-life/death in nature").
Claude Shannon's theory is the origin of the field of mathematics known as information theory and is used in pharmaceutical and cancer research among other things. The discipline is generally known as "information theory and molecular biology".
Here is my post from another thread:
Information is that which distinguishes life from non-life/death.
Information, paraphrased as successful communication is the reduction of uncertainty (Shannon entropy) in a receiver or molecular machine in going from a before state to an after state. It is the action, the communication itself, the arrows on the chart below. It is not the message. The value or meaning of the message being transmitted has no bearing on the model.
Two quick thought experiments for Lurkers:
Consider what would happen if you dropped a live bird, a dead bird and a cannonball from the rooftop.
Successful communication includes all of the named elements. In biological systems these elements should be interpreted as follows:
Applied to the enigmas, this definition would interpret all of the following as living with the following restrictions:
Bacterial Spores autonomous successful communication
Mycoplasmas autonomous bacterial model parasite successful communication
Mimivirus autonomous virus model parasite successful communication
Viroids non-autonomous virus-like noise/mutation contributing to successful/failed communication (no protein coat)
Viruses non-autonomous virus noise/mutation contributing to successful/failed communication (feeds genetic data to the host)
Prions non-autonomous protein noise/mutation contributing to successful/failed communication (protein crystallization)
If you have an alternative mathematical definition, I'd love to see it!