[extropy-chat] against ID

Robert Bradbury robert.bradbury at gmail.com
Thu Dec 8 18:05:29 UTC 2005


On 12/7/05, gts <gts_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> This Kansas professor criticised ID and its proponents and plans to offer
> a course titled "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design,
> Creationism and other Religious Mythologies" putting ID where it rightly
> belongs: in courses about religion.
>
>
Actually, I *hate* to burst your bubble :-; but ID could well belong in
courses on science related to whether or not we were (a) setup as an
evolutionary experiment (as I pointed out in various MBrain discussiosn --
'natural' evolution may be able to explore certain computational development
paths better than 'designed' computation can); (b) whether the universe
itself is based upon cellular automata -- recently discussed by Kurzweil
based on work by Fredkin & Wolfram in TSIN; and/or (c) whether or not "we"
are completely running in a simulation (ala the Matrix et al) [after all an
MBrain can most likely support > 10^24 human brains].

Now of course, a *GOOD* discussion of ID doesn't focus on how "complex" our
*perceived* universe happens to be (actually "my" universe since none of you
are really out there...).  A *GOOD* discussion focuses on what would be
required to create "our" universe (after all, if MBrain level capabilities
can dismantle planets, assembling solar systems as evolutionary starting
points for 'natural' computations isn't that much harder.  So the "I" in
"ID" may simply be post-singularity civilizations performing experiments in
accordance with our perceived understanding of the 'natural' laws of
physics.  Now if they have elevated it to the level that we are running in a
sim, then all bets are off with regard to our understanding (and proving)
anything (IMO).

It is worth pointing out that the above ID scenarios are *not* going to make
people falling into the "creationist" frame of mind particularly happy.
Added to the discussion they do however turn ID vs. Evolution into something
which merits serious consideration.

Robert
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