For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,...For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, ...so that THEY ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE: Col 1:16 / Rom.1:20

Friday, December 15, 2023

Information & Matter

"William Dembski defends a new ontology: the most fundamental thing in the universe, he argues, is information. He calls this position "informational realism." 
Dembski makes use of Shannon's information theory, employing it as a springboard into the nature of message transmission and reception.

Claude Shannon - who pioneered Information Theory.
A gene sequence is information; know-how refers to the ability to make something from it, and this cannot reside in the information itself. 
---"DNA has no knowhow and cannot unpack itself; it is a slave to the machinery needed to unpack it," says Hidalgo. 
This seems obvious, but it is worth restating, if only to remind us that this unpacking process (and not further sequencing per se) is now the most important unanswered question in genomics.

Dembski argues that information is conserved but can be created by intelligence. 
It is not derived from matter; instead, matter is the medium by which intelligence communicates information." 
EN&V
....and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.
Psalm 102:18