Information and Misinformation in Life s Origins Randy Isaac

Transcription

1 Information and Misinformation in Life s Origins Randy Isaac ASA 2016 Annual Meeting Azusa Pacific University July 23, 2016 Some slides courtesy of Stephen J Freeland

2 AGENDA 1. What is information? 2. What is biological information? 3. What are the ID claims of information? 4. What is the relevance of information to understanding the origins of life?

3 What is information? Anything that could be different whatever is capable of a competent Difference, perceptible to any Sense, may be a sufficient Means whereby to express the Cogitations. John Wilkins, 1641, cited in Gleick, The Information: a History a Theory a Flood, 2011

4 Information Theory N possible states II = log NN bits 2 if all states have equal probability Most general case: II = pp xx log pp(xx) dddd Where pp xx is the probability of all possible physical states

5 ANALOG VS DIGITAL INFORMATION Macroscopic world is analog Continuous variables Microscopic world is digital Discrete states

6 CATEGORIES OF INFORMATION Outside of information theory Information Theory Shannon Information SEMANTICS SYNTAX CAPACITY THERMODYNAMICS Abstract or physical meaning or function All possible physical states Actual physical states Targeted physical states

7 CATEGORIES OF INFORMATION Linguistic example Meaning Grammar English All Languages SEMANTICS SYNTAX CAPACITY THERMODYNAMICS Abstract or physical meaning or function All possible physical states Actual physical states Targeted physical states

8 AGENDA 1. What is information? 2. What is biological information? 3. What are the ID claims of information? 4. What is the relevance of information to understanding the origins of life?

9 CATEGORIES OF INFORMATION Biological information Biochemical action Genetic code Genome Microbiome; Biomolecules SEMANTICS SYNTAX CAPACITY THERMODYNAMICS Abstract or physical symbolism All possible physical states Actual physical states Targeted physical states

10 Biological Information is Digital and Analog Uracil Cytidine Adenosine Guanosine DNA RNA 10 Protein transcription translation

11 AGENDA 1. What is information? 2. What is biological information? 3. What are the ID claims of information? 4. What is the relevance of information to understanding the origins of life?

12 ID Information Claim #1 New information can only be generated by an intelligent agent. Why? All our experience shows that information is always generated by a conscious mind. FALSE for biology All that experience is with human-designed information systems there is no justification for extrapolating to nature and DNA. Meaningful DNA information is biochemical action and not an abstraction It happens all the time in bio reproduction

13 ID Information Claim #2 The probability of information being functional or meaningful is too small to be attained without an intelligent agent. Meaningful information is RARE. The Bicycle Lock Analogy

14 BIKE LOCK

15 BIKE LOCK # = 10 4 Scales exponentially p N Proteins are long chains of amino acids. Proteins ,000

16 ID Information Claim #2 The probability of information being functional or meaningful is too small to be attained without an intelligent agent. Meaningful information is RARE. The Bicycle Lock Analogy FALSE if applied to biology There is no analogous biological function

17 BIKE LOCK How to pick a bike lock: Start with a random code Determine if any is correct Retain correct and vary others Result: Scales Logarithmically p*log (N)

18 ID Information Claim #2 The probability of information being functional or meaningful is too small to be attained without an intelligent agent. Meaningful information is RARE. The Bicycle Lock Analogy FALSE if applied to biology There is no analogous biological function The ability to retain functional information is key to generating new functional information.

19 PROBABILITY SCALING Attempts by random selection: Scales exponentially p N When retaining correct elements: Scales logarithmically p*log (N) See Wilf and Ewens, PNAS December 28, 2010 vol. 107 no. 52 There is Time for Evolution

20 AGENDA 1. What is information? 2. What is biological information? 3. What are the ID claims of information? 4. What is the relevance of information to understanding the origins of life?

21 LIFE DEPENDS ON RETAINING FUNCTIONAL INFORMATION 1. Reproduction Copying functional information retains success 2. Large populations Search is done in a massively parallel way Failed modification doesn t erase success

22 CONCLUSIONS Natural selection works at the information level There is no support for an inference to intelligent design from the field of information