Re: Human designers vs. God-as-designer

From: DNAunion@aol.com
Date: Sun Oct 08 2000 - 20:04:24 EDT

  • Next message: DNAunion@aol.com: "Re: Reply to CCogan: Waste and computer evolution"

    >Ccogan: Finally, I may as well point out that, if you understood the
    literally *infinite* richness that derives mathematically from the principle
    of repeated, cumulative variational branching, it's doubtful that you would
    claim that the theory is "simplistic."

    > DNAunion: That is incorrect: there is not *literally infinite* richness
    produced by repeated cumulative variational branching. Had you said
    "infinite", in double quotes to indicate the word should not be taken
    literally, then your comment could be considered correct. But had you even
    said simply infinite, without double quotes, your statement would be wrong.
    And it is clearly wrong since you prefaced the word infinite with the word
    LITERALLY. Simple refutation. There are 20 amino acids. If they are peptide
    bonded
    into a 10,000 amino acid protein, then there are 20^10,000 possible unique
    arrangements of symbols (i.e., amino acids). This is many orders of
    magnitude larger than the estimated number of fundamental particles in the
    universe.

    >FMAJ: So far so good but what are you trying to show here? Repeated
    cumulative variational branching?

    DNAunion: That even this one finite set of possibilities that I thought up
    cannot be exhaustively searched by "cumulative variational branching" even if
    the universe were trillions of years old. If "cumulative variational
    braching" cannot fully sample a finite set, then it absolutely cannot fully
    sample an infinite set composed of the same symbols: simple math.

    >DNAunion: But then there are 20 times MORE unique combinations that are
    have just one more amino acid in the chain. Then there are another 20 times
    MORE than that one when another single amino acid is added, and so on, and
    so on, and so on. All the possible unique combinations have not been hit, and
    never
    will, even if the universe gets to be trillions of trillions of trillions of
    trillions … [you get the idea] years old.

    >FMAJ: Mathematically the possibilities are infinite. You are confusing
    forms of infinite here it seems.

    DNAunion: No, I am using infinite as it should be: you two are conflating
    INFINITE with something like VASTLY MANY. There is your error.

    >Ccogan: Is it possible that it's your *understanding* of it that is
    "simplistic"?

    > DNAunion: That might be the pot calling the kettle black.

    >FMAJ: We shall see.

    DNAunion: All the evidence is in. "Cumulative variational branching" cannot
    search the full richness of an infinite set as it cannot even search through
    all of one of the finite sets I provided (and there are many, many, many,
    many more such sets, none of which "cumulative variational branching" could
    run through completely).

    There is another possibility: that instead of saying that "CVB" could search
    through an infinite set, saying that "CVB" could create an infinite set. But
    this too in faulty: in both instances, "CVB" has full access only to finite
    sets. Either way, the use of the phrase "literally *infinite*" was incorrect.



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