A common belief is that Evolution and Intelligent Design are an either/or proposition.
Today I’m going to tie the two together in an elegant way and show that they compliment each other beautifully.
A common criticism of Intelligent Design is that it offers no testable hypothesis.
Today I’m going to lay that accusation firmly to rest with a whole series of predictions about what evolution research will show us in the next 3 to 20 years.
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You may or may not have noticed, but Information is always written top-down, not bottom-up. You may or may not have noticed that information also has to be modified or re-written top-down.
Random mutation assumes information is bottom-up. That is the most fundamental reason why that theory is failing. Evolution is a top-down process.
The highest layer of information is intent. All coded information is driven by intent. Intent results in meaning which results in sentences which dictate words which dictate letters.
(Not the other way around.)
Everything I predict in this series, then, comes from a proposition that evolution is an engineered process and is programmed to happen; and that the program itself is intelligent and operates in a top-down fashion.
Onward with my testable hypothesis:
1) Evolutionary adaptation is the work of a “Mutation Algorithm.”
Cells employ a built-in algorithm, which engineers re-arrangement of Mobile Genetic Elements (as observed by McClintock and Shapiro). Genes and Chromosomes are re-arranged in a fantastically beautiful process which produces useful adaptations and new species.
I call this the Mutation Algorithm. It is a program which attempts to evolve when necessary and computes the optimal path to a desired result. This algorithm is described as exhibiting some form of intelligence.
This Mutation Algorithm, in combination with natural selection, explains what random mutation and natural selection cannot.
Hypothesis: DNA systematically tests skin color, fur patterns, hair, limbs, claws and other features much as you would switch out blades on a Swiss army knife
2) The Mutation Algorithm tests design options like blades on a Swiss army knife. DNA has a huge “bag of tricks” and is able to mix and match combinations of eyes, feet and claws, joints, digits, hair, skin and fur colors and patterns, switching out different “blades” as environments change.
It builds animals on a common chassis of head, spine, heart, lungs, stomach and limbs.
It ferociously defends this core chassis from being corrupted by random mutations, while switching out different variables in the head, spine, heart etc.
3) The Swiss army knife “blades” include variables that adjust the structure of incredibly complex systems with simple changes.
For example the length of a giraffe neck could be “dialed in” by a single gene which controls the length of nerve fibers, muscles, esophagus and number of vertebra, all at the same time
This explains both small and large variations in species. DNA fills the ecosystem with every imaginable variety of life because it’s designed to.
It adjusts these variables until the creature is maximally adapted to its environment.
4) The Mutation Algorithm is normally at rest. It goes to work whenever the population is under extreme stress. This is why we see the pattern of “punctuated equilibrium” in the fossil record.
There are long periods of stability where there is no change, because the Mutation Algorithm is dormant. When there is a crisis, it activates and begins to test novel features.
5) The Mutation Algorithm operates within populations, not just individuals.
The Mutation Algorithm catalogs past mutation attempts so that it does not get “stuck” repeating past failures. Organisms somehow share information so that they can collectively test a wider variety of mutations than any one organism could attempt.
Efforts to find a mechanism by which organisms share this information will eventually be rewarded. And the mechanism that is discovered will be as surprising and revolutionary to biology as Einstein’s theory of relativity was to physics.
6) Evolutionary pathways are not random and purposeless, they are mathematically optimized in advance to reach desired destinations in the smallest possible number of steps.
An analogous process is the Taguchi method used in Quality Control, which creates a very small set of manufacturing experiments, which represent a very large number of possible manufacturing combinations.
It systematically tests them via a “design of experiments” process, then generates a new design which is a nearly optimal combination.
>Thousands of possible design combinations are evaluated with only a few dozen tests.
Then more inputs are gathered, new designs are generated and the test is run again.
I invite you to consider that DNA does something very similar with arrangements of modular biological components, literally calculating and anticipating possible evolutionary steps. It senses inputs from its environment and optimizes the experimental process.
(The Taguchi hypothesis and related concepts from Quality Control, Kaizen and Six Sigma also help explain the phenomenon of punctuated equilibrium.)
Imagine for a moment, if you will – that same process that DNA uses can be quantified and adapted for use in manufacturing and process control.
Comparisons to Quality Control and manufacturing are very useful when considering evolutionary theories. The theory of Neo-Darwinism, which is now fighting for its very life, always insisted that evolution proceeded as a function of random mutations combined with natural selection.
A direct analogy in manufacturing would be if we made a production line where incoming parts were randomly and carelessly modified; then a QC check simply discarded all unsuitable assemblies at the end of the line.
Can you even think of a more wasteful and inefficient quality control system? Soon it would also result in the most wasteful and inefficient factory imaginable. The employees would be laid off and the plant would close.
You may or may not have noticed…. there is no manufacturing facility in the world that makes products that way. Quality Control is always an extremely deliberate set of inputs combined with rigorous analysis of the outputs.
My hypothesis is that DNA operates much the same way as a Kaizen / Six Sigma manufacturing operation. DNA not only actively participates in the mutation process, it also monitors the natural selection process.
I hypothesize that the genome got from single cells to humans in an incredibly short period of time – that 3 billion years from cells to mankind is an engineering feat of the highest order. That such a feat required the most advanced forms of optimization and as little waste as possible.
We’ve only begun. Stay tuned for future installments, where I’ll discuss “Junk DNA”, show you the layers of information in DNA and new discoveries that await us in computer science.
In later parts I’ll also talk about human genetic engineering, the Human Genome Project, and a new Anthropic Principle that specifically applies to DNA.
Perry Marshall
Further reading: Swine Flu Virus Mutations and the Evolution of Google Ads
A 21st Century View of Evolution by James A. Shapiro
Evolution as Computation by Laura F. Landweber and Erik Winfree
Download The First 3 Chapters of Evolution 2.0 For Free, Here – https://evo2.org/evolution/Where Did Life And The Genetic Code Come From? Can The Answer Build Superior AI? The #1 Mystery In Science Now Has A $10 Million Prize. Learn More About It, Here – https://www.herox.com/evolution2.0
Perry,
Fantastic. The Intelligent Designer concept (!?!) is really a “Theory of Biological Relativity” as that of Einstein’s Theory of (Physical) Relativity. Your threading on the DNA design is appreciable. Since the days of intelligence (!) the cosmos before us is very complicated. But scientists (including me – a Professor in Entomology) hardly belive that The Master Mind is obscure. Although a scientist I am deeply involved in Hindu’s Spritual Philosophy. The philosophy is so simple that organism + environment + Its response to animate / inaminate objects are imprinted in (probably in DNA codons) for a new form / species, and thus new generations in a presently known complicated biota. Revealing the secrets is possible when the ‘revealer’ and ‘receiver’ are one and same (say of same wave length) as to cut the diamonds with diamonds only. The mutation algorithm is acceptable but the theory on why is a boggling. I am sure that the concept of Intelligent Designer do exist but to my mind the ‘mind’ of sharply focused indididual who has the SELF-INQUIRY mode is the Intelligent Designer because all of us who had the ROSE and DIE, The Design is relocated in an INFINITESIMAL particle and brings back or new form life be it amimate or inamimate objects – Recycling with a blend of known, new and unknown information as needed to the soceity in a given time. I consider the TIME and SPACE are of Biological Components / Algorithm than of physical ones. As you conceptualise the Computer Coding: 101010…. to Biological Coding: AT GC … I opine that the SPACE between the codes, letters, elements, molecules, electrons, (the lifetrons !?!) or even the subatomics or sub…sub –trons and the TIME by which is created decides the forms or speciation or futher Super Intelligentia, which is in a continuum.
Perry,
I am very much interested in your conception of the genetic code as an indication of intelligence. I am a philosopher who has been looking for a testable way of demonstrating intelligence in the processes of nature and have published a work, The Concept of Intelligence (University Press of America) readily available at Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, etc. which lays down what I call the criteria of intelligence and its contrasts. I may be wrong but I think it is the missing ingredient in your dialogue between yourself and your objectors. Armed with a clear definition of intelligence, I believe you could strengthen your case for the genetic code exhibiting all the criteria of intelligent activity. The missing ingredient in my work has been finding examples of intelligent process in nature. Now, I think I may have found it in your conception of the genetic code. I believe the combination of your view and mine would lead to a highly specific set of testable scientific hypotheses with predictive value.
I am not an orthodox believer however, meaning I don’t subscribe to any of the tenets of any organized religion. I am agnostic with regard to traditional depictions of a personal god. My view is that we should allow the methods and procedures of the sciences determine whether nature displays intelligence in its operations or not. I am however working on the hunch that it does and if so it would support a view closer to that of pantheism. I would urge you to take a look at my book and let me know what you think.
I ordered the book. Perhaps we can converse more after I’ve looked thru it.
Ira:
I don’t really understand the problem:
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Every cell of every organism displays intelligent process no? Every organism as well, no?
What ‘s the problem?
DAK
I have a problem with the primary assumption of this website, and it is not “intelligent design” at all. I do think the universe has been constructed by an Intelligence, and that Intelligence is something we do not have the ability to fathom. My problem, and the moderators are very careful about this, being honest people, is that people assume that if there is an Intelligence, it MUST be the Christian conception of God, and continue to place humankind as the center of such a being’s focus, intent and reason for being. I propose that man is not so special, that squirrels are run over by cars and die of disease, and that we are run over by cars and die of disease…. I believe in Intelligent design, but that cannot and does not mean it, whatever IT is, is the Christian God…that is a mere convenience for patting ourselves on the back for being ourselves. Is it really important, in the way we trat each other, in the way we conduct our families and friends, in the way we conduct our lives…is it really important that we think we are the best thing in the universe? Hogwash! We are children of the universe, not masters of it.
Fredd:
Does Perry say that anywhere? This is certainly a good point, and certainly it DOES seem that the language used often trys to appeal to the Christian concept.
I certainly agree with your point overall. Try this on for size:
1.) Assume the universe is holographic and holograms are pervasive within it.
2.) Now we can move along and learn a LOT about everything from any piece within it.
3.) So let’s look at the human: There is the cell level, the tissue level, the organ level, etc. and the whole human. Each level “controls” and yet doesn’t control each lower level and each level “feeds back” to each other level. Each unit is a piece of the whole and yet “separate” and distinct.
Soooooo……… You are a liver cell and “god” is like the “person”. So, does the “person” watch over you like the Christian God???
DAK
You really should apply your talents some other place; I suppose this is a break from the world of writing computer programs.
I can assure you after death there is nothing, good or bad. Just nothing…to me nothing had possed a problem until the discovery of anti-matter. In death there isn’t even anti-matter. A persons spirit lives in the lives of the living not the dead. I keep my former friends and relatives alive in spirit as I knew them.
For example the Christian Bible is a composite of metaphors and embellished stories for interest.
hi pery iam ageat fan,
but i’ve got aquestion you said you are a believer but the bible says God made man inhis image ,he just made it ,but science says as you also accept we are here after passing throught alot of processes(austrolopiticus,homo habilus……) do you believe this is true, if so how do you match it with genenesis.
See http://evo2.org/genesis1/ particularly verse 26 and 27. In Genesis 2 it says “God breathed the breath of life into man and he became a living being.” An animal-like creature is given a spirit. Thus the huge difference between man and all other creatures.
so you’re saying we are the extentions of animals(we come from them throught evolution) then we earned the sprit of God and that is the only reason that makes us different.
Correct.
I couldn’t find any referral to the the Craig Venter Institute’s recent achievement.
Some atheists regard it as another blew to Christianity but in my view it is another scientific achievement that supports Perry’s hypothesis. It proved beyond doubt that DNA is a code . It also proved that DNA is able to code for any type or form of information. It is even able to store the names of the names of the relevant researchers etc.
Here is a quote from the the best open abstract summary I could find about there achievement. that is not password protected :
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As in the team’s 2008 publication in which they described the successful synthesis of the M. genitalium genome, they designed and inserted into the genome what they called watermarks. These are specifically designed segments of DNA that use the “alphabet” of genes and proteins that enable the researcher to spell out words and phrases. The watermarks are an essential means to prove that the genome is synthetic and not native, and to identify the laboratory of origin. Encoded in the watermarks is a new DNA code for writing words, sentences and numbers. In addition to the new code there is a web address to send emails to if you can successfully decode the new code, the names of 46 authors and other key contributors and three quotations: “TO LIVE, TO ERR, TO FALL, TO TRIUMPH, TO RECREATE LIFE OUT OF LIFE.” – JAMES JOYCE; “SEE THINGS NOT AS THEY ARE, BUT AS THEY MIGHT BE.”-A quote from the book, “American Prometheus”; “WHAT I CANNOT BUILD, I CANNOT UNDERSTAND.” – RICHARD FEYNMAN.”
The link
http://www.jcvi.org/cms/press/press-releases/full-text/article/first-self-replicating-synthetic-bacterial-cell-constructed-by-j-craig-venter-institute-researcher/
Absolute proof of the coding abilities of DNA
I am a Gynecologist and an amateur Java programmer . The similarities between object orientated computing and DNA is amazing.
Continue the good work
Johan
Johan,
GREAT post!
I’m going to re-publish this as a blog post.
Thanks,
Perry
I enjoyed reading about trace genes, repressed genes that sit idle if needed to repair genes bacteria either destory or develop, and bacteria that form R and DNA.
Bacteria development is a miracle of God. Unfortunately gene development isn’t perfectly healthy.
There are hosts of genetic mal-developments.
Being an OBYGN I’m sure you are well aquanted with bacteria.
Pentecostal teach baptist in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in another tongue. I call that a heavenly language or code and interrupted as interpretation is given from God.
If science could see God develop genes A G C T and pair them into specific functions we could only praise the power of God.
Fortunately we know combinations of genes and their roll in cellular production. Everything does concentrate around the white body cell and the heart carrying life giving nutrient to body organs.
It is truely amazing how the body works as a whole.
Am sorry Perry but you are completely and pathetically wrong about evolution.
I have been following your site since 2010 and have not felt the need to comment because your knowledge of evolution is erroneously based.
I thought you would realize your fallacy sooner, but as the years go by, you never learn. You just remain fallacious as you have always been.
You think of evolution as if its a process with the goal of saving the fittest. Aiming at those with the best trait. As if its an intelligent process that chooses which gene to retain or remove.
Well you are wrong. The environment tells which gene are retained and natural selection selects that. Reading more about evolution, preferably from evolutionists and not from creationists will educate you.
I must tell you that none of your arguments have been 1% successful at proving anything against evolution so I wasn’t moved by them.
The more you point out problems in evolution, the more we atheists learn about evolution so keep up the good work.
I assume you are a Christian, you know that should the table be turned and the bible be put to scrutiny, it will fail completely without remedy. I have seen that happen many times.
Sincerely,
Biodun