Category: Comp. Sci. / Eng.
ALERT: A caution on the ongoing hacker attack on the Java programming language
| January 22, 2013 | Posted by kairosfocus under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Culture, News, Off Topic, Society |
Off topic, but important as a service to UD’s readers. HERE. Pardon, I took some days before commenting, until I found some useful info beyond the media panic headlines. Notice the clip from Oracle’s advisory, the link to the FAQ and the further link on gory technical details. The bottomline is that over the past… more
A Designed Object’s Entropy Must Increase for Its Design Complexity to Increase – Part 2
| September 5, 2012 | Posted by scordova under Biophysics, Comp. Sci. / Eng., Complex Specified Information, ID Foundations, Informatics, Physics, Self-Org. Theory |
In order for a biological system to have more biological complexity, it often requires a substantial increase in thermodynamic entropy, not a reduction of it, contrary to many intuitions among creationists and IDists. This essay is part II of a series that began with Part 1 The physicist Fred Hoyle famously said: The chance that… more
A Designed Object’s Entropy Must Increase for Its Design Complexity to Increase – Part 1
| September 4, 2012 | Posted by scordova under Biophysics, Comp. Sci. / Eng., Complex Specified Information, ID Foundations, Informatics, Physics, Self-Org. Theory |
The common belief is that adding disorder to a designed object will destroy the design (like a tornado passing through a city, to paraphrase Hoyle). Now if increasing entropy implies increasing disorder, creationists will often reason that “increasing entropy of an object will tend to destroy its design”. This essay will argue mathematically that this… more
The Shallowness of Bad Design Arguments
| August 26, 2012 | Posted by scordova under Comp. Sci. / Eng., ID Foundations, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Religion, Spirituality |
The existence of bad design, broken design, and cruelty in the world inspires some of the strongest arguments against the Intelligent Design of life and the universe. I consider the “bad design” argument the most formidable of the anti-ID arguments put forward, but in the end it is shallow and flawed. I will attempt to… more
Are pseudogenes evidence of code libraries? (a speculative suggestion)
| July 28, 2012 | Posted by andyjones under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Genomics, Intelligent Design, The Design of Life |
Intelligent Design is relatively new in its present form. Proponents often argue that there are features of biology that look like engineering, and in particular, that the programming of life, the DNA software that goes along with the cellular hardware, is analogous to the programming of computers. However, we haven’t yet been able to fully… more
Human brain beats computers cold at visual search
| July 17, 2012 | Posted by News under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Intelligent Design, News |
But surely the point is that computer doesn’t NEED to find anything. more
Craig Venter: Life is robotic software. Well then, information isn’t material.
| July 15, 2012 | Posted by News under Comp. Sci. / Eng., News, Origin Of Life |
Principal fact: The same information can be conveyed by a blackboard, an email, skywriting or voice. more
Design Detection with Conditional Kolmogorov Complexity
| July 14, 2012 | Posted by johnnyb under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Complex Specified Information, Engineering, ID Foundations, Informatics, Intelligent Design, Mathematics, Media, Philosophy, Video |
Next up in the Engineering and Metaphysics series is a presentation by Winston Ewert. This one is on a new informatics metric, called conditional Kolmogorov complexity. Check it out! more
Integrating Non-physical Causation Into Cognitive Models
| July 12, 2012 | Posted by johnnyb under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Engineering, ID Foundations, Intelligent Design, Mathematics, Media, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Video |
For the next installment of the Engineering and Metaphysics Conference Videos, we have a talk on setting up a testable line between physical and non-physical causation, as well as how one can integrate non-physical causation into models of cognitive processes. more
Supergeek Stephen Wolfram on “computational irreducibility”
| July 3, 2012 | Posted by News under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity |
“I tend to think that the concept of computational irreducibility is probably the answer to the philosophical debates of the past two thousand years about the relationship between free will and determinism.” more
Warning 50 years on: The machine has no brain; use your own
| June 30, 2012 | Posted by News under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Intelligent Design, Mind, News |
In fact, the machine needs no genuine intelligence because it is automating the work of a human being who has both intelligence and purpose. more
Are mind and brain really software and hardware?
| June 6, 2012 | Posted by News under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Mind, News |
Or is that an analogy that just doesn’t really work? more
Another reason why the human mind is not like a computer …
| June 4, 2012 | Posted by News under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Mind, News |
“Just when every successive wave of peers and rivals thinks they have got his number, Anand sees that one, all important, absolute move.” more
A reader’s thoughts on why computers don’t become human, even in media
| March 21, 2012 | Posted by News under Comp. Sci. / Eng., News |
“The character Data is a person in just the same way that every other character in literature is a person — and a human person, at that.” more
Why people beat computers: “It’s not being biological that helps, it’s being an agent …”
| March 20, 2012 | Posted by News under Comp. Sci. / Eng., News |
” All computer algorithms that ever have or ever will exist are the antithesis of agents. ” more
Swarms of gamers better than “inept” computer algorithms at matching up disease genes
| March 19, 2012 | Posted by News under Comp. Sci. / Eng., News |
And Data’s cat is training him just fine. See the vid. more
Trying to make a machine into a human isn’t really new, it turns out
| February 27, 2012 | Posted by News under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Mind, News |
“… paradoxically enough, this passion had less to do with philosophy than with blasphemy, hypochondria, and a cheerful and Frankensteinian hubris.” more
Baylor prof Robert Marks on evolutionary informatics
| January 20, 2012 | Posted by News under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Darwinism, News |
With special reference to ev, AVIDA, and WEASEL. more
Darwinian Speculation: The Antithesis of Legitimate Science
| December 13, 2011 | Posted by GilDodgen under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Darwinism, Intelligent Design |
I work for a great company. I frequently ask for permission to be sent away for training in state-of-the-art computational technology — computer simulations that involve finite element analysis (FEA), Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian/Fluid Structure Interaction (ALE/FSI), and Navier-Stokes Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Today I spent the day with a group of brilliant students and a… more
Science historian George Dyson: Life is whatever you define it to be
| October 22, 2011 | Posted by News under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Culture, Evolution, News |
The next step might be the end of distinct species and the beginning of a more symbiotic life. more