An Algorithmic Information Theory Challenge to Intelligent Design

Abstract

Abstract.William Dembski claims to have established a decision process to determine when highly unlikely events observed in the natural world are due to Intelligent Design. This article argues that, as no implementable randomness test is superior to a universal Martin-Löf test, this test should be used to replace Dembski's decision process. Furthermore, Dembski's decision process is flawed, as natural explanations are eliminated before chance. Dembski also introduces a fourth law of thermodynamics, his "law of conservation of information," to argue that information cannot increase by natural processes. However, this article, using algorithmic information theory, shows that this law is no more than the second law of thermodynamics. The article concludes that any discussions on the possibilities of design interventions in nature should be articulated in terms of the algorithmic information theory approach to randomness and its robust decision process.

Algorithmic Entropy and Landauer’s Principle Link Microscopic System Behaviour to the Thermodynamic Entropy

“…An important feature is that the algorithmic complexity, the length of the shortest self-delimiting algorithm that specifies the string representing a configuration in the natural world, is an entropy measure in bits that aligns in practical situations with the traditional entropies. For example, Devine [ 20 ] has used AIT to show there is no need to define a fourth law of thermodynamics to explain order in the universe, as has been postulated by the intelligent design community ([ 21 ]). More recently, algorithmic entropy has been used to track the emergence of order in far-from-equilibrium biological and economic systems [ 22 , 23 ].…”

Publishing in a Changing World

“…But open access has been made possible by Wiley, for an author's fee of US$3,000. In 2014, we had the first two articles appearing open access (Devine ; Petersen ), one from New Zealand and one covered by University College London.…”