Re: information and information generation

Glenn R. Morton (grmorton@waymark.net)
Mon, 06 Jul 1998 19:42:27 -0500

At 11:30 AM 7/6/98 -0500, Ron Chitwood wrote:
>The problem is this is not 'new' information. It might be true that it is
>new to us, but it is not new. It has just been discovered.
Ron,

Information theory can get you into the problem of evil pretty quickly.
Natural/scientific information is what man discovers, and indeed we can say
that that information is already there. But you are missing an important
fact. Information also consists of the bits required to define a picture
or a text book. While it is perfectly acceptable to claim that God
inspired the Book of Genesis, it seems a bit difficult make the same claim
about Lady Chatterly's Lover, Torqemada's torture manual, Marquis de Sade's
writings or the innumerable pornographic movies available. These items
also constitute information, but information which is not discovered but
which is devised by the mind of man.

>Mankind does
>not create something from nothing, as our creator did, and no new
>information could have been generated by chance to change a one-celled
>creature into a mammal, no matter how much time has gone by. That is why
>we are so limited, and it is arrogant of us to believe otherwise.

You have a bunch of claims above.

1. Mankind does not create something from nothing.

this is true. One of the equations I posted showed that information can be
created from energy. Mankind uses energy to create information so he is
not creating something from nothing.

2. "no new information could have been generated by chance to change a
one-celled creature into a mammal, no matter how much time has gone by"

This also was addressed in my longer post the other day and elsewhere. A
random sequence has more information defined mathematically. Is it
intelligible? No unless one defines gives the sequence meaning. As was
noted in the post the other day about the Australian information storage
and retreival system, meaning is clearly in the mind of the beholder.
Meaning cannot be measured by any mathematical formula. Indeed, Brad
admitted that he would have to go outside of information theory to learn if
a sequence of supposed Mandarin, had any meaning at all. Two of the
sequences did one didn't.

Secondly, the math I presented in the long post yesterday, shows that
information transmission from the environment has almost no limit.

3. 'That is why we are so limited.'

the 'that' refers to the inability of random chance to improve a being. I
would disagree with you. THAT is not why we are so limited. We are so
limited because God MADE us as limited creatures, not because of anything
that random chance can or can not do!

4. "it is arrogant of us to believe" [that we aren't limited]

Agree. But it isn't because of random chance. It is because of who God
made us to be.
glenn

Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm