We Are Mystified by Eric Holloway

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

@EricMH, I showed you that a natural process can increase FI.

@EricMH

This was @swamidass’ argument that natural processes could produce functional information. I point out the math shows the FI is dependent on pre-existing MI, so the argument doesn’t follow.

You made that claim. We responded that MI just arises naturally from the deterministic process of duplication.

Then you pulled this out:

@EricMH

But while I was not arguing in my other threads that physical duplication is mutual information and indicates intelligent design, yes, it does appear even duplication requires some kind of intelligent design. At least that seems to be the logical conclusion of my mutual information argument.

Which seems to therefore demonstrate your argument is false by a reductio ad absurdum. Except you seem to be actually taking this to be a valid position.

@dga471

(Caveat: I’m not trained in information theory, and I have not been following the exchange between Eric and @Dan_Eastwood.)

You seem to be making far fewer mistakes than most people here.

@dga471

This “copying function” can be used no matter what AA contains. Thus, I(F:A)I(F:A) should be close to zero in most cases. Am I missing something here?

Depends how you measure it. In some cases it might increase information quite a bit, doubling it.

If we have reduced FI to merely restating the fact that DNA can duplicate, perhaps @EricMH can explain how duplication is not a deterministic + random process.