Re: [asa] Biologic Institute

David C. said: The information for biological evolution is the
environment. Organisms
succeed if their genetic information adequately matches this existing
information.

I respond: if we're using these metaphors, isn't the environment more like
the computing substrate in which the information is processed -- DNA is like
code; environment is like computer. You used information twice above:
"their genetic information adequately matches this existing information."

Maybe what you want to say is that genetic information is an *emergent
property of* the environment? (This is what seems to make most sense to me
as a critical realist).

Or maybe you want to say genetic "information" is a misnomer. But that
seems like a difficult claim from my perspective: "information is a
difference that makes a difference" (Gregory Bateson).

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 8:37 PM, Randy Isaac <randyisaac@comcast.net> wrote:

> David Campbell wrote:
>
> "There are some people on the list with strong backgounds in
> cybernetics. As for me, I note that this reflects an incorrect
> concept of information as it applies to biological evolution. The
> information for biological evolution is the environment. Organisms
> succeed if their genetic information adequately matches this existing
> information. Mutation, recombination, etc. continually provides new
> genetic information to test against the environmental information.
> There's no mystery about where information could come from."
>
>
> Agreed. And as I think I've noted before, the more appropriate technical
> term that information theorists use in describing DNA in a cell is
> "complexity" rather than "information."
>
> Randy
>
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-- 
David W. Opderbeck
Associate Professor of Law
Seton Hall University Law School
Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology
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