Computing the Functional Information in Cancer

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What Have We Learned?

We learned several things.

  1. There are many types of mutual information.
  2. Some types of mutual information decrease with random mutations.
  3. Other types of mutual information can increase with random mutations + selection.
  4. #2 and #3 are not contradictory statements.
  5. Functional information is identifiable as the type of mutual information that can increase with mutation + selection.
  6. We can compute the functional information of cancer directly based on some well understood biology, and it can be as high as 350 bits.
  7. There for we observe that natural processes can easily produce substantial amounts of functional information.
  8. This means that functional information is definitively not a unique signature of intelligence.

As explained by Robert Mark’s PhD student:

I’ve shown now the way in which this proof is correct, and the way in which it is incorrect. It turns out that some types of mutual information will decrease with random mutations of a starting sequence. Other types can increase. Functional information is the type of mutual information that can increase.

I’ve shown this visually. I’ve provided experimental evidence in the cancer biology. This should now be intuitively clear and and empirically established.

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