[snip]
>
>>
>> This limitation leads Davies into contradictions. He explicitly says that
>> laws cannot contain the recipe for life because laws are "information -
>> poor" while life is "information - rich."
>>
>> Can [specified complexity] be the guaranteed product of a deterministic,
>> mechanical, law - like process, like a primordial soup left to the mercy
>of
>> familiar laws of physics and chemistry? No, it couldn't. No known law of
>> nature could achieve this.
>>
>
>In point of fact, experimental research that refutes this claim has been
>around for four decades; Davies either wasn't aware of it or he didn't
>understand it, so he ignored it.
>
Let's not jump to conclusions. I'm still not sure exactly what
"specified complexity" is in terms of information theory (i.e.
its precise definition) but the statement:
#'He explicitly says that laws cannot contain the recipe for
#life because laws are "information -poor" while life is
#"information - rich."'
is right on the mark. This is a fundamental result from
information theory proven first, if I remember correctly,
by Chaitin, one of the founders of algorithmic information
theory.
Brian Harper
Associate Professor
Applied Mechanics
The Ohio State University
"All kinds of private metaphysics and theology have
grown like weeds in the garden of thermodynamics"
-- E. H. Hiebert