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Spontaneous Appearance of Life and the Second Law of Thermodynamics, David Snoke

VladtheDestroyer

VladtheDestroyer

Active member

From the paper

"We live in the age of information, but the denition of
information is surprisingly controversial. Often, the denition of
information is connected to communication, the transmission
of messages between intelligent beings (or machines
designed by them). This entangles the discussion in issues
of the nature of intelligence, consciousness, and purposive
intent. It may be fruitful to have a secondary discussion
on the concept of “semantic” information, which explicitly
accounts for the meaning of messages between intelligent
agents, but if our denition of information is tied to this,
then we must say that there is no information in biological
systems at microscopic levels where there is presumably no
intelligent communication happening. Yet the use of the term
“information” in regard to biological systems is ubiquitous.1,2
Rather than rejecting this terminology, we can adopt it as
justied if we can nd a denition of information content
derived entirely from the physical properties of a system."

I like Snoke's way of thinking here, but I think it overlooks the fact that, when viewed as a physical property, the information content of system can not be quantified until a mind makes a decision as to which distinct states will be recognized.

Wouldn't a materialist say that if something cannot be measured or quantified, then that thing [information] does not exist?

Snoke seems to think this does not matter, but I am not sure I agree..

"An information-processing
system selects and acts on one of Ω possibilities. It is possible,
of course, for an intelligent agent to perform selections, but a
selection process does not intrinsically require the presence
of intelligence; any physical system which has a macroscopic
action one way in response to a particular selected state,
and not the same way in response to others, may be said to
engage in selection."

Anyway, the paper is a worthwhile read for anyone who is interested in these things. Ultimately he concludes there is no meaningful pathway for multi-bit processors required for life to arise naturally.
 
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