Eyes to See
Well-Known Member
The genome is the entire set of instructions found within a cell. How is information within the genome reconciled with the second law of thermodynamics?
Entropy and Information
The one who thought up information theory, Claude Shannon, explains that information is the reduction of uncertainty. You have a book with no cover or title so you are uncertain what is in it. So you open it and start to read it, thus reducing uncertainty of what it is about and increase your knowledge of it.
The smallest level of information according to information theory is a bit. Imagine flipping a coin you have .5 chance of heads and .5 chance of tails. 1(head) = -1 log (.5) = 1 bit.
Thus encoding of a system can be accomplished using the lowest bit of information, say a computer, or the DNA. An intelligence is able to reduce uncertainty or create a machine to reduce it and thusly increase the information (knowledge).
On accepting evolution you need an explanation of how it reduces uncertainty and increases information. Give a reason syntax and semantics occurs in the sequence of nucleotides.
Encoding information in the DNA
How did evolution know how to describe lower entropy states and increase information?
Imagine a deck of cards. A-K suited is the lower entropy state. We can use less bits of information to explain the state of the cards in order saying Spades are first, Diamonds second, then Clubs, and finally Hearts. All the information required is here to explain the order of the cards. But shuffle them up. Now you need more information to explain the order of the cards. KD - 2H - 8C - 10S etc. More information is required to explain a deck of shuffled cards. So reducing the deck to its lowest entropy state reduces the amount of information required to explain the order they are in.
Now a deck has 52 cards, to factor it is astronomically high! There are 8.0658*10^67 combinations. If you take the supposed age of the universe (13.8 billion years) its not enough time to cover all the possibilities to occur. Check this out:
Now, out of the 8.0658*10^67 combinations of the 52 deck card, only 24 can be in the lowest entropy state, A-K, Spades, Diamonds, Hearts, Clubs.
An intelligent mind can, with ease, reduce the card to its lowest entropy state. That is because intelligent minds, which we have (or machines which we can create) can reduce the uncertainty and increase the information in the system.
A believer in evolution needs to explain how it reduces uncertainty and increases the information. Question, how does nature (unthinking and unintelligent) know information to describe lower entropy state? In other words, since it doesn't and can't know it is all random chance, how does it reduce a system like a deck of cards to its lowest 24 entropy states out of 8.0658*10^67 different combinations? Now remember it would take longer than the existence of our universe (13.8 billion) to just do this with a deck of cards by random chance.
So for those who profess faith in a natural interpretation of evolution, how do you explain this unintelligent force behind it being able to reduce entropy and increase information in a system?
We took the example of a deck of cards that has 52 cards. Now remember it would take longer than the age of the universe to even try and shuffle these into their lowest entropy state by chance. The human genome has 3 billion base pairs! The intelligent human mind cannot even begin to compute that. So let's take something easier. mycoplasma genitalium, it only has 580,070 base pairs and codes for 525 genes. To get this genome nature is dealing with 580,00 different combinations (not 52).
To get the genome of a mycoplasma genitalium we are not dealing with 52 different combinations but 580,000!
Remember what they taught us in school about the second law of thermodynamics (I think it was first year Chemistry for me), it states that it destroys any increase in information. That is, any system left alone tends to a state of decay, disorder, in other words: entropy.
Do you understand what this is saying? Unless you have an intelligence to decrease uncertainty and thus increase information in a system, information itself can never originate or increase. The second law of thermodynamics, entropy, makes it impossible. In an open system entropy can be reduced and you can get an ordered system like a diamond. But it does not allow for the sun shining on a puddle of mud to get a reduction of uncertainty and increase in knowledge to build a machine that can encode information.
Thus the genome. Look at the relation between nucleotide bases and amino acids. How does chance decide the sequence of GTC to code for valine instead of leucine?
Why does random chance need a genetic code? We can understand, with ease, why an intelligent designer would use a genetic code. It is needed to enconde information to get around the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
The 2nd law of thermodynamics destroys any chance of an increase of information in a system., you need designed machinery to get past the state of entropy. Thus, you need a mind that has knowledge of the information needed to describe the state of a system and encode it in the sequence of the storage medium.
Does reading that paragraph bring to your mind a computer programmer? In a computer program bits of information do not just coalesce to create the computer. You need a mind designing the program language, and assembling the code, reducing the uncertainty, and increasing the information for the program.
Thusly, you need transistors and gates. Start with the byte which is 8 bits and an electrical charge = 1 and no electrical charge = 0. A human mind can manipulate information needed to build the machine.
A diamond = lowest entropy state. a diamond watch = highly designed. A watch needs a coder to increase the knowledge in the system and decrease the lower entropy state, capisce?
So how did the genome come to be? Why would random chance create a code where nucleotide base codes for amino acids? Why would nature have a transcription and translation process? Why would blind chance form a polypeptide chain of a sequence of amino acids to encode on a gene? What makes it build molecular machinery to decode the information? How does it make it so there is a correlation between digital and analog data? Why is there syntax and semantics?
If you can just shine the lights ray on a puddle of mud and get life then why do amino acids reduce to proteins? Amino acids don't naturally form sequences of proteins.
There are roughly 500 amino acids identified in nature. 20 amino acids make up the proteins found in the human body.
20 Amino Acids that Make Up Proteins | Enhancing Life with Amino Acids | About the Ajinomoto Group | Ajinomoto Group Global Website - Eat Well, Live Well.
How did nature select 20 amino acids to end up in the human genome? When and how did nature decide on just 20?
Essential amino acids cannot be made by the body. They must come from food.
Amino acids: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
How did nature create a genetic code that included amino acids that a human would need before humans existed?
Please stop and ponder on that question. There are amino acids required for human life that aren't made by the human body, yet the human genome included these amino acids in its genetic code before we even came into existence.
How does blind chance know we needed these amino acids and encode them on the sequences of DNA? How does nature do this when the sun destroys DNA?
Sunlight damages DNA in the dark
They found that UVA radiation, the main type of UV light that comes from the Sun and from tanning beds, creates melanin by-products that damage DNA
Sunlight damages DNA in the dark - Nature
And how does the encoding system even have a meaning unless the meaning is assigned to it? We have a written language of English. Computers have programing languages. But the characters in the language have no meaning unless an intelligence gives it meaning.
So here is the question. Considering bits have to be designed to encode information (like on a computer, using a symbols given meaning by an intelligence) how does chance know how many bits describes a low entropy state? How can nature then build a machine to encode the information with symbols (in this case amino acids in the DNA) in the sequences of a storage medium in the face of the 2nd law of thermodynamics? And we aren't even beginning to deal with the impossible odds of reducing a 3 billion base pair to its lowest entropy state.
Entropy and Information
The one who thought up information theory, Claude Shannon, explains that information is the reduction of uncertainty. You have a book with no cover or title so you are uncertain what is in it. So you open it and start to read it, thus reducing uncertainty of what it is about and increase your knowledge of it.
The smallest level of information according to information theory is a bit. Imagine flipping a coin you have .5 chance of heads and .5 chance of tails. 1(head) = -1 log (.5) = 1 bit.
Thus encoding of a system can be accomplished using the lowest bit of information, say a computer, or the DNA. An intelligence is able to reduce uncertainty or create a machine to reduce it and thusly increase the information (knowledge).
On accepting evolution you need an explanation of how it reduces uncertainty and increases information. Give a reason syntax and semantics occurs in the sequence of nucleotides.
Encoding information in the DNA
How did evolution know how to describe lower entropy states and increase information?
Imagine a deck of cards. A-K suited is the lower entropy state. We can use less bits of information to explain the state of the cards in order saying Spades are first, Diamonds second, then Clubs, and finally Hearts. All the information required is here to explain the order of the cards. But shuffle them up. Now you need more information to explain the order of the cards. KD - 2H - 8C - 10S etc. More information is required to explain a deck of shuffled cards. So reducing the deck to its lowest entropy state reduces the amount of information required to explain the order they are in.
Now a deck has 52 cards, to factor it is astronomically high! There are 8.0658*10^67 combinations. If you take the supposed age of the universe (13.8 billion years) its not enough time to cover all the possibilities to occur. Check this out:
Now, out of the 8.0658*10^67 combinations of the 52 deck card, only 24 can be in the lowest entropy state, A-K, Spades, Diamonds, Hearts, Clubs.
An intelligent mind can, with ease, reduce the card to its lowest entropy state. That is because intelligent minds, which we have (or machines which we can create) can reduce the uncertainty and increase the information in the system.
A believer in evolution needs to explain how it reduces uncertainty and increases the information. Question, how does nature (unthinking and unintelligent) know information to describe lower entropy state? In other words, since it doesn't and can't know it is all random chance, how does it reduce a system like a deck of cards to its lowest 24 entropy states out of 8.0658*10^67 different combinations? Now remember it would take longer than the existence of our universe (13.8 billion) to just do this with a deck of cards by random chance.
So for those who profess faith in a natural interpretation of evolution, how do you explain this unintelligent force behind it being able to reduce entropy and increase information in a system?
We took the example of a deck of cards that has 52 cards. Now remember it would take longer than the age of the universe to even try and shuffle these into their lowest entropy state by chance. The human genome has 3 billion base pairs! The intelligent human mind cannot even begin to compute that. So let's take something easier. mycoplasma genitalium, it only has 580,070 base pairs and codes for 525 genes. To get this genome nature is dealing with 580,00 different combinations (not 52).
To get the genome of a mycoplasma genitalium we are not dealing with 52 different combinations but 580,000!
Remember what they taught us in school about the second law of thermodynamics (I think it was first year Chemistry for me), it states that it destroys any increase in information. That is, any system left alone tends to a state of decay, disorder, in other words: entropy.
Do you understand what this is saying? Unless you have an intelligence to decrease uncertainty and thus increase information in a system, information itself can never originate or increase. The second law of thermodynamics, entropy, makes it impossible. In an open system entropy can be reduced and you can get an ordered system like a diamond. But it does not allow for the sun shining on a puddle of mud to get a reduction of uncertainty and increase in knowledge to build a machine that can encode information.
Thus the genome. Look at the relation between nucleotide bases and amino acids. How does chance decide the sequence of GTC to code for valine instead of leucine?
Why does random chance need a genetic code? We can understand, with ease, why an intelligent designer would use a genetic code. It is needed to enconde information to get around the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
The 2nd law of thermodynamics destroys any chance of an increase of information in a system., you need designed machinery to get past the state of entropy. Thus, you need a mind that has knowledge of the information needed to describe the state of a system and encode it in the sequence of the storage medium.
Does reading that paragraph bring to your mind a computer programmer? In a computer program bits of information do not just coalesce to create the computer. You need a mind designing the program language, and assembling the code, reducing the uncertainty, and increasing the information for the program.
Thusly, you need transistors and gates. Start with the byte which is 8 bits and an electrical charge = 1 and no electrical charge = 0. A human mind can manipulate information needed to build the machine.
A diamond = lowest entropy state. a diamond watch = highly designed. A watch needs a coder to increase the knowledge in the system and decrease the lower entropy state, capisce?
So how did the genome come to be? Why would random chance create a code where nucleotide base codes for amino acids? Why would nature have a transcription and translation process? Why would blind chance form a polypeptide chain of a sequence of amino acids to encode on a gene? What makes it build molecular machinery to decode the information? How does it make it so there is a correlation between digital and analog data? Why is there syntax and semantics?
If you can just shine the lights ray on a puddle of mud and get life then why do amino acids reduce to proteins? Amino acids don't naturally form sequences of proteins.
There are roughly 500 amino acids identified in nature. 20 amino acids make up the proteins found in the human body.
20 Amino Acids that Make Up Proteins | Enhancing Life with Amino Acids | About the Ajinomoto Group | Ajinomoto Group Global Website - Eat Well, Live Well.
How did nature select 20 amino acids to end up in the human genome? When and how did nature decide on just 20?
Essential amino acids cannot be made by the body. They must come from food.
Amino acids: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
How did nature create a genetic code that included amino acids that a human would need before humans existed?
Please stop and ponder on that question. There are amino acids required for human life that aren't made by the human body, yet the human genome included these amino acids in its genetic code before we even came into existence.
How does blind chance know we needed these amino acids and encode them on the sequences of DNA? How does nature do this when the sun destroys DNA?
Sunlight damages DNA in the dark
They found that UVA radiation, the main type of UV light that comes from the Sun and from tanning beds, creates melanin by-products that damage DNA
Sunlight damages DNA in the dark - Nature
And how does the encoding system even have a meaning unless the meaning is assigned to it? We have a written language of English. Computers have programing languages. But the characters in the language have no meaning unless an intelligence gives it meaning.
So here is the question. Considering bits have to be designed to encode information (like on a computer, using a symbols given meaning by an intelligence) how does chance know how many bits describes a low entropy state? How can nature then build a machine to encode the information with symbols (in this case amino acids in the DNA) in the sequences of a storage medium in the face of the 2nd law of thermodynamics? And we aren't even beginning to deal with the impossible odds of reducing a 3 billion base pair to its lowest entropy state.
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