From: Josh Bembenek (jbembe@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Nov 30 2002 - 03:06:59 EST
>From: "Vernon Jenkins" <vernon.jenkins@virgin.net>
>To: "Glenn Morton" <glenn.morton@btinternet.com>, <asa@calvin.edu>
>Subject: Re: Aliens (was:RE: Dembski and Caesar cyphers)
>Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2002 22:07:48 -0000
>
>Glenn, I think you must agree that the process I've described is really
>'bottomless' in respect of minimising the probability figure. What if,
>instead of just 10, we settled for a million consecutive primes over a
>wider
>range? Surely, at some point in the scale of possibilities you would say
>'enough is enough; this has to be evidence of design'!
>
>You seek to draw a comparison of what I am describing with the probability
>of being dealt a particular hand in a game of cards. But this hardly a fair
>analogy. Surely, in respect of our hypothetical alien mastermind who has
>devised a signal that widely proclaims his civilisation's exceptional
>abilities, we infer that he has first looked for some suitable combination
>of universal absolutes of low probability in order to capture the attention
>of an intelligent receptor. He reasons that an orchestrated event of
>exceedingly low probability will achieve this intial objective. [Let us
>acknowledge at this point that in addition to the primes he has a wide
>canvas of
>possibilities at his disposal: perfect numbers, figurate numbers (37 and 91
>being unique in possessing 3 symmetrical forms) and so on.] This
>initial demonstration of intelligence is a perfect example of _specified
>complexity_ . Unlike the hand of cards we infer it has
>been designed with a specific end in view, viz that of advertising one's
>presence and abilities as a cosmic player.
>
>Vernon
If we humans ever encountered a situation like the one in Contact, Glenn
would be the only one to say "the signal doesn't mean anything" to the
original prime sequence they found. (yes there were further messages giving
more meaning to the initial contact, but I'd believe the first set of prime
numbers)
_________________________________________________________________
MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Nov 30 2002 - 12:12:30 EST