Re: Creation of information
Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2019 2:28 pm
Sorry, I forgot for a moment which forum I'm visiting. I should have written:
"there are lot of much more complicated apparent designs in biology"
Nils
"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." (Psalm 19:1)
https://discussions.godandscience.org/
Sorry, I forgot for a moment which forum I'm visiting. I should have written:
In this particular example there is no code and there is no meaning.Nils wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:16 am DB,
let's discuss the example Cepheid variables. They are a class of stars with the nice property that their diameter and luminosity varies with time, 1-50 day period, and the period length is directly proportional to the mean luminosity. This makes them an important tool for measuring distances. If you know the period length and the brightness you get in a telescope you can calculate the distance, see also Wikipedia.
If you take for instance the photons a specific Cepheid sends during 100 days, they determine the mean luminosity of the star. Data about the photons give the information of the luminosity. Say that some of these photons arrive to the Earth 100 000 of years later and you measure them to get the period, the brightness, and the direction. You then have a lot of data and from that you can extract the information about the luminosity, the distance and the position in the Universe (relative to the Earth).
The source of the information is the star, its brightness and its position. This information is sent from the star in all directions and is coded by the behaviour of the photons. It can be extracted everywhere in a sphere that is 100 000 light years in radius at some time during the 100 000 years it take the photons to reach the Earth. The data about the photons can be measured and from that the information can be extracted.
Using the concepts of Shannon information theory the star is the sender of the information, the observer at the Earth is the receiver of it and the message is encoded in the behaviour of the photons.
You seem to think that information is created by an intelligence at the arrival of the data but I think that the Cepheid example (and my earlier examples) show why you are wrong.
ITNils wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:58 amI don't think I can explain it better than Wikipedia, but OK:PaulSacramento wrote: ↑Thu Dec 12, 2019 8:54 amYes, since you know how it works also.Nils wrote: ↑Thu Dec 12, 2019 12:43 amDon't you understand the evolution theory?? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection. If you then have questions I will try to answer.PaulSacramento wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2019 10:45 amWhat drives natural selection? how does "nature select" ?
NilsIt's an integral part of life. I don't think that life without natural selection is possible.Explain how natural selection came to be?All individuals are threatened losing there lives all the time. Those that survive so long that they get many descendants have the "best"genes and their descendants will inherit them.How does natural selection work? not the results, but the actual process."Nature" doesn't decide, it just happens! It's part of living. See above. If you and your friend are chased by a lion, the fastest runner will survive.How does it decide what is an advantageous trait ??Definitely not.Does it have intelligence?
Questions?
Nils
The information is there, coded into the data. The coding is the same as in a FM radio where FM stands for frequency modulation. The brilliance of the star is modulated as a sinusoidal wave of brilliance variance and also by the number of photons.DBowling wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:23 amIn this particular example there is no code and there is no meaning.Nils wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:16 am DB,
let's discuss the example Cepheid variables. They are a class of stars with the nice property that their diameter and luminosity varies with time, 1-50 day period, and the period length is directly proportional to the mean luminosity. This makes them an important tool for measuring distances. If you know the period length and the brightness you get in a telescope you can calculate the distance, see also Wikipedia.
If you take for instance the photons a specific Cepheid sends during 100 days, they determine the mean luminosity of the star. Data about the photons give the information of the luminosity. Say that some of these photons arrive to the Earth 100 000 of years later and you measure them to get the period, the brightness, and the direction. You then have a lot of data and from that you can extract the information about the luminosity, the distance and the position in the Universe (relative to the Earth).
The source of the information is the star, its brightness and its position. This information is sent from the star in all directions and is coded by the behaviour of the photons. It can be extracted everywhere in a sphere that is 100 000 light years in radius at some time during the 100 000 years it take the photons to reach the Earth. The data about the photons can be measured and from that the information can be extracted.
Using the concepts of Shannon information theory the star is the sender of the information, the observer at the Earth is the receiver of it and the message is encoded in the behaviour of the photons.
You seem to think that information is created by an intelligence at the arrival of the data but I think that the Cepheid example (and my earlier examples) show why you are wrong.
The star provides data, but not information.
There is structure and organization to the behavior of the star that are a function of the laws of nature, but there is no code, there is no meaning, there is no purpose.
The data from the star is useless or meaningless until an intelligence gathers and organizes the data from the star for some meaningful purpose, such as using the data from the star to measure distances.
Again... a key attribute of information is meaning or purpose. And meaning and purpose are functions of intelligence.
Here you say that the bee's nervous system processes and organizes the input data into meaningful information. This seems contradictory to your statement thatDBowling wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:42 pmThere is definitely lots of evidence of design in biology.Nils wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:07 pmHere you say that the bee's nervous system processes and organizes the input data into meaningful information. This seems contradictory to your statement thatDBowling wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 11:38 amThat looks like some pretty sophisticated design to me.Nils wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 11:34 am
What do you say about this quotation from Wikipedia /Information?
"The colored light reflected from a flower is too weak to do much photosynthetic work but the visual system of the bee detects it and the bee's nervous system uses the information to guide the bee to the flower, where the bee often finds nectar or pollen, which are causal inputs, serving a nutritional function. "
Nils
"b. The only observed causal agent (definer and creator) of information is intelligence."
The information here is created by the flower (my opinion) or the bee (your opinion) and neither is an intelligence I think.
Nils
Yes, it is, but there are lot of much more complicated designs in biology.Here's how I look at it...What's you comment on the use of 'information' here?
I don't see the sensory input as information.
I see the sensory input as data.
The bee's nervous system then processes and organizes the input data into meaningful information that the bee can use to find the flower.
The sensory input is useless to the bee until it is processed and organized by the bee's nervous system.
How did it get "coded" into the "data"?Nils wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:12 amThe information is there, coded into the data. The coding is the same as in a FM radio where FM stands for frequency modulation. The brilliance of the star is modulated as a sinusoidal wave of brilliance variance and also by the number of photons.DBowling wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:23 amIn this particular example there is no code and there is no meaning.Nils wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:16 am DB,
let's discuss the example Cepheid variables. They are a class of stars with the nice property that their diameter and luminosity varies with time, 1-50 day period, and the period length is directly proportional to the mean luminosity. This makes them an important tool for measuring distances. If you know the period length and the brightness you get in a telescope you can calculate the distance, see also Wikipedia.
If you take for instance the photons a specific Cepheid sends during 100 days, they determine the mean luminosity of the star. Data about the photons give the information of the luminosity. Say that some of these photons arrive to the Earth 100 000 of years later and you measure them to get the period, the brightness, and the direction. You then have a lot of data and from that you can extract the information about the luminosity, the distance and the position in the Universe (relative to the Earth).
The source of the information is the star, its brightness and its position. This information is sent from the star in all directions and is coded by the behaviour of the photons. It can be extracted everywhere in a sphere that is 100 000 light years in radius at some time during the 100 000 years it take the photons to reach the Earth. The data about the photons can be measured and from that the information can be extracted.
Using the concepts of Shannon information theory the star is the sender of the information, the observer at the Earth is the receiver of it and the message is encoded in the behaviour of the photons.
You seem to think that information is created by an intelligence at the arrival of the data but I think that the Cepheid example (and my earlier examples) show why you are wrong.
The star provides data, but not information.
There is structure and organization to the behavior of the star that are a function of the laws of nature, but there is no code, there is no meaning, there is no purpose.
The data from the star is useless or meaningless until an intelligence gathers and organizes the data from the star for some meaningful purpose, such as using the data from the star to measure distances.
Again... a key attribute of information is meaning or purpose. And meaning and purpose are functions of intelligence.
There is information in the data. If you have an observer close to the star it can extract the information from the data as well as an observer 100 000 thousand years later can do on the Earth using the same data. Do you mean that you can get information from the data close to the star and then 100 000 years later from the same data but that the information doesn't exist during the time between? That assumes a strange definition of information.
https://www.diffen.com/difference/Data_vs_Information that you referred to before says:
"When data is processed, organized, structured or presented in a given context so as to make it useful, it is called information. " That doesn't mean that there is no information in the data, it only means that it has to be extracted.
Nils
By some physical process that I don't know.PaulSacramento wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 10:03 amHow did it get "coded" into the "data"?Nils wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:12 amThe information is there, coded into the data. The coding is the same as in a FM radio where FM stands for frequency modulation. The brilliance of the star is modulated as a sinusoidal wave of brilliance variance and also by the number of photons.DBowling wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:23 amIn this particular example there is no code and there is no meaning.Nils wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:16 am DB,
let's discuss the example Cepheid variables. They are a class of stars with the nice property that their diameter and luminosity varies with time, 1-50 day period, and the period length is directly proportional to the mean luminosity. This makes them an important tool for measuring distances. If you know the period length and the brightness you get in a telescope you can calculate the distance, see also Wikipedia.
If you take for instance the photons a specific Cepheid sends during 100 days, they determine the mean luminosity of the star. Data about the photons give the information of the luminosity. Say that some of these photons arrive to the Earth 100 000 of years later and you measure them to get the period, the brightness, and the direction. You then have a lot of data and from that you can extract the information about the luminosity, the distance and the position in the Universe (relative to the Earth).
The source of the information is the star, its brightness and its position. This information is sent from the star in all directions and is coded by the behaviour of the photons. It can be extracted everywhere in a sphere that is 100 000 light years in radius at some time during the 100 000 years it take the photons to reach the Earth. The data about the photons can be measured and from that the information can be extracted.
Using the concepts of Shannon information theory the star is the sender of the information, the observer at the Earth is the receiver of it and the message is encoded in the behaviour of the photons.
You seem to think that information is created by an intelligence at the arrival of the data but I think that the Cepheid example (and my earlier examples) show why you are wrong.
The star provides data, but not information.
There is structure and organization to the behavior of the star that are a function of the laws of nature, but there is no code, there is no meaning, there is no purpose.
The data from the star is useless or meaningless until an intelligence gathers and organizes the data from the star for some meaningful purpose, such as using the data from the star to measure distances.
Again... a key attribute of information is meaning or purpose. And meaning and purpose are functions of intelligence.
There is information in the data. If you have an observer close to the star it can extract the information from the data as well as an observer 100 000 thousand years later can do on the Earth using the same data. Do you mean that you can get information from the data close to the star and then 100 000 years later from the same data but that the information doesn't exist during the time between? That assumes a strange definition of information.
https://www.diffen.com/difference/Data_vs_Information that you referred to before says:
"When data is processed, organized, structured or presented in a given context so as to make it useful, it is called information. " That doesn't mean that there is no information in the data, it only means that it has to be extracted.
Nils
The bee example is very similar to your computer in a maze example.Nils wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:15 amHere you say that the bee's nervous system processes and organizes the input data into meaningful information. This seems contradictory to your statement thatDBowling wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:42 pmThere is definitely lots of evidence of design in biology.Nils wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:07 pmHere you say that the bee's nervous system processes and organizes the input data into meaningful information. This seems contradictory to your statement thatDBowling wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 11:38 amThat looks like some pretty sophisticated design to me.Nils wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 11:34 am
What do you say about this quotation from Wikipedia /Information?
"The colored light reflected from a flower is too weak to do much photosynthetic work but the visual system of the bee detects it and the bee's nervous system uses the information to guide the bee to the flower, where the bee often finds nectar or pollen, which are causal inputs, serving a nutritional function. "
Nils
"b. The only observed causal agent (definer and creator) of information is intelligence."
The information here is created by the flower (my opinion) or the bee (your opinion) and neither is an intelligence I think.
Nils
Yes, it is, but there are lot of much more complicated designs in biology.Here's how I look at it...What's you comment on the use of 'information' here?
I don't see the sensory input as information.
I see the sensory input as data.
The bee's nervous system then processes and organizes the input data into meaningful information that the bee can use to find the flower.
The sensory input is useless to the bee until it is processed and organized by the bee's nervous system.
"b. The only observed causal agent (definer and creator) of information is intelligence."
The information here is created by the flower (my opinion) or the bee (your opinion) and neither is an intelligence I think.
Process?Nils wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 11:12 amBy some physical process that I don't know.PaulSacramento wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 10:03 amHow did it get "coded" into the "data"?Nils wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:12 amThe information is there, coded into the data. The coding is the same as in a FM radio where FM stands for frequency modulation. The brilliance of the star is modulated as a sinusoidal wave of brilliance variance and also by the number of photons.DBowling wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:23 amIn this particular example there is no code and there is no meaning.Nils wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:16 am DB,
let's discuss the example Cepheid variables. They are a class of stars with the nice property that their diameter and luminosity varies with time, 1-50 day period, and the period length is directly proportional to the mean luminosity. This makes them an important tool for measuring distances. If you know the period length and the brightness you get in a telescope you can calculate the distance, see also Wikipedia.
If you take for instance the photons a specific Cepheid sends during 100 days, they determine the mean luminosity of the star. Data about the photons give the information of the luminosity. Say that some of these photons arrive to the Earth 100 000 of years later and you measure them to get the period, the brightness, and the direction. You then have a lot of data and from that you can extract the information about the luminosity, the distance and the position in the Universe (relative to the Earth).
The source of the information is the star, its brightness and its position. This information is sent from the star in all directions and is coded by the behaviour of the photons. It can be extracted everywhere in a sphere that is 100 000 light years in radius at some time during the 100 000 years it take the photons to reach the Earth. The data about the photons can be measured and from that the information can be extracted.
Using the concepts of Shannon information theory the star is the sender of the information, the observer at the Earth is the receiver of it and the message is encoded in the behaviour of the photons.
You seem to think that information is created by an intelligence at the arrival of the data but I think that the Cepheid example (and my earlier examples) show why you are wrong.
The star provides data, but not information.
There is structure and organization to the behavior of the star that are a function of the laws of nature, but there is no code, there is no meaning, there is no purpose.
The data from the star is useless or meaningless until an intelligence gathers and organizes the data from the star for some meaningful purpose, such as using the data from the star to measure distances.
Again... a key attribute of information is meaning or purpose. And meaning and purpose are functions of intelligence.
There is information in the data. If you have an observer close to the star it can extract the information from the data as well as an observer 100 000 thousand years later can do on the Earth using the same data. Do you mean that you can get information from the data close to the star and then 100 000 years later from the same data but that the information doesn't exist during the time between? That assumes a strange definition of information.
https://www.diffen.com/difference/Data_vs_Information that you referred to before says:
"When data is processed, organized, structured or presented in a given context so as to make it useful, it is called information. " That doesn't mean that there is no information in the data, it only means that it has to be extracted.
Nils
Nils
Rather (2): a continuing natural or biological activity or functionPaulSacramento wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 11:36 amProcess?Nils wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 11:12 amBy some physical process that I don't know.PaulSacramento wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 10:03 amHow did it get "coded" into the "data"?Nils wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:12 amThe information is there, coded into the data. The coding is the same as in a FM radio where FM stands for frequency modulation. The brilliance of the star is modulated as a sinusoidal wave of brilliance variance and also by the number of photons.DBowling wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:23 am
In this particular example there is no code and there is no meaning.
The star provides data, but not information.
There is structure and organization to the behavior of the star that are a function of the laws of nature, but there is no code, there is no meaning, there is no purpose.
The data from the star is useless or meaningless until an intelligence gathers and organizes the data from the star for some meaningful purpose, such as using the data from the star to measure distances.
Again... a key attribute of information is meaning or purpose. And meaning and purpose are functions of intelligence.
There is information in the data. If you have an observer close to the star it can extract the information from the data as well as an observer 100 000 thousand years later can do on the Earth using the same data. Do you mean that you can get information from the data close to the star and then 100 000 years later from the same data but that the information doesn't exist during the time between? That assumes a strange definition of information.
https://www.diffen.com/difference/Data_vs_Information that you referred to before says:
"When data is processed, organized, structured or presented in a given context so as to make it useful, it is called information. " That doesn't mean that there is no information in the data, it only means that it has to be extracted.
Nils
Nils
1.
a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end.
You say that the design of the bee's central nervous system can be traced back to an intelligent designer. I assume that you then think thatDBowling wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 11:33 amThe bee example is very similar to your computer in a maze example.Nils wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:15 amHere you say that the bee's nervous system processes and organizes the input data into meaningful information. This seems contradictory to your statement thatDBowling wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:42 pmThere is definitely lots of evidence of design in biology.Nils wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:07 pmHere you say that the bee's nervous system processes and organizes the input data into meaningful information. This seems contradictory to your statement that
"b. The only observed causal agent (definer and creator) of information is intelligence."
The information here is created by the flower (my opinion) or the bee (your opinion) and neither is an intelligence I think.
Nils
Yes, it is, but there are lot of much more complicated designs in biology.Here's how I look at it...What's you comment on the use of 'information' here?
I don't see the sensory input as information.
I see the sensory input as data.
The bee's nervous system then processes and organizes the input data into meaningful information that the bee can use to find the flower.
The sensory input is useless to the bee until it is processed and organized by the bee's nervous system.
"b. The only observed causal agent (definer and creator) of information is intelligence."
The information here is created by the flower (my opinion) or the bee (your opinion) and neither is an intelligence I think.
The bee receives input data regarding its surroundings
The computer receives input data regarding its surroundings.
The bee's central nervous system processes the input data into information that can be used by the bee.
The computer's program processes the input data into information that can be used by the computer.
The design of the bee's central nervous system can be traced back to an intelligent designer.
The design of the computer's program can be traced back to an intelligent designer.
My position (based on empirical observation) is that design in general (biological or otherwise) can eventually be traced back to an intelligent designer.Nils wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 1:03 pmYou say that the design of the bee's central nervous system can be traced back to an intelligent designer. I assume that you then think thatDBowling wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 11:33 am The bee example is very similar to your computer in a maze example.
The bee receives input data regarding its surroundings
The computer receives input data regarding its surroundings.
The bee's central nervous system processes the input data into information that can be used by the bee.
The computer's program processes the input data into information that can be used by the computer.
The design of the bee's central nervous system can be traced back to an intelligent designer.
The design of the computer's program can be traced back to an intelligent designer.
(1) any biological phenomenon in nature can be traced back to an intelligent designer.
I would say that they are truth...In #42 I referred to two statements of Meyer:
6:32 "We know from our experience that information always arrives from an intelligence source." and
6:52 "Whenever we see information and we trace it back to a source it always comes to a mind not an undirected material process".
If what you say, (1), is correct the two statements are truisms, because then there are nothing biological that can't be traced back to an intelligence.
I disagree...If so, Meyer's two statements are useless to rebut the evolution theory because they are true independent of the truth of the evolution theory.