Re: [asa] Re: information, complexity, environment -- was ]Biologic Institute

Randy said: To me, that means that actual organismal complexity is so much
smaller than the potential, that the C-value paradox isn't puzzling but
shows that the exhibited complexity depends to first order on factors other
than the amount of genetic material.

I respond: This is interesting. So what are the other factors? For one --
not the "amount" of genetic material, but the specific "instructions" in
the portions of the genetic material that are actually coding for proteins?

Here is a crack at a brief critical realist theology of biological
information:

I don't like the ID / Biologic Institute notion that "information" is a
basic property like energy and matter. "Information," IMHO, is not
ontologically at the same level as energy and matter because "information"
emerges from other more fundamental layers that are material and/or
relational.

In cybernetic theory, Norbert Weiner suggested that "information" is like
matter and energy, and Rolf Landauer famously said "information is
physical." What is truly "physical" in Landauer's schema, however, is only
matter and energy -- physical circuits and magnetic fields arranged in
certain configurations in a computer's memory. The semantic content of
those configurations only emerges out of the physical substrate within a
socially constructed context -- the "decoder ring" of computer coding
languages created by groups of human beings.

In the context of the Divine Logos speaking creation into being, the "Word"
is not a property created out of nothing like energy and matter. Rather,
the "Word" is a person of the Triune God. The "informational content" of
the created order is a social construction of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit who in self-communion willed and allowed space for the physical
universe to exist.

We appreciate the beauty and order of the CTAG "language" sequences that
emerge from DNA molecules and this "language" is susceptible to information
theoretic manipulation in computational biology. This is not, however,
because God created "information" ex nihlo, but because His creation is
relational and social, and "information" emerges from relational and social
structures. Very basically, the relationship of organisms to environment
causes the continual reconfiguration of the physical layer of DNA, from
which "information" emerges. The presence of genetic "information" in
living organisms, then, is not proof of a preexisting intelligence, but is
consistent with the relational creative activity of the Triune God.

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 11:53 AM, Randy Isaac <randyisaac@comcast.net>
wrote:

> Rich wrote:
>
> There is also an implicit assumption that organismal complexity is the
>> result of DNA complexity. That these didn't correlate caused the C- value
>> and G-value paradoxes. In yesterday's PNAS Stumpf et al found something
>> where the complexity actually does match organismal complexity, namely the
>> so-called protein-protein interactome.
>>
>>
> So true, Rich. A physicist's tendency to oversimplify (the classic
> spherical cow) can miss an awful lot of good stuff. But sometimes it does
> help to oversimplify in order to put things into perspective. I would
> suggest that the complexity of an embryo is reflected by the amount of all
> biochemical material, not just DNA. That this does not correlate to
> organismal complexity is very interesting but not surprising. The full
> extent of potential organismal complexity is never expressed.
>
> Let's try that in a different language. Given a string of DNA, one could in
> theory calculate the number of possible proteins for which that string could
> code. That is the cellular complexity, or potential organismal complexity.
> The number of proteins actually formed by that string is vastly smaller and
> represents the actual organismal complexity.
>
> To me, that means that actual organismal complexity is so much smaller than
> the potential, that the C-value paradox isn't puzzling but shows that the
> exhibited complexity depends to first order on factors other than the amount
> of genetic material.
>
> Randy
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
> "unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
>

-- 
David W. Opderbeck
Associate Professor of Law
Seton Hall University Law School
Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology
To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.