> vastly underestimating the amount of state that is associated with the exact details of a developing organism.
Sir, kindly indicate where Myers makes that point. I read him as going straight into protein folding, and the complex interactions required for the expression of the genome. (I believe you agree that state in the environment that is caused by the expression of the DNA is not information originating in the environment - ie that this is merely magnifying information, as you put it.)
While there is an incredible amount of state created, in the from of gradients and so on, this is directed by the genome...
Or maybe this is our basic disagreement: do you think that an image of a mandelbrot set creates information as it is generated (and that pi creates information as each digit is calculated), or do you think that the information is defined within the algorithm that calculates it? [there are other issues, but just taking this one alone]
So I'm not 100% sure what you mean; please clarify if I understand you correctly.
While there's information in the environment, there's not very much: consider the white and yoke of a chicken egg. Like letters etched in metal with acid, most of the information is in the placement of the letters; the exact nature of the chemical reaction contributes a very small amount of information. Can you indicate why you think there is a great deal of information originating in the environment?
Yes, the heath of the mother can have an effect, but that's if she is unhealthy, and development does not proceed normally. Assuming she's healthy, the specific condition of the mother doesn't determine whether or not a human being is created. Are you suggesting otherwise?
> vastly underestimating the amount of state that is associated with the exact details of a developing organism.
Sir, kindly indicate where Myers makes that point. I read him as going straight into protein folding, and the complex interactions required for the expression of the genome. (I believe you agree that state in the environment that is caused by the expression of the DNA is not information originating in the environment - ie that this is merely magnifying information, as you put it.)
While there is an incredible amount of state created, in the from of gradients and so on, this is directed by the genome...
Or maybe this is our basic disagreement: do you think that an image of a mandelbrot set creates information as it is generated (and that pi creates information as each digit is calculated), or do you think that the information is defined within the algorithm that calculates it? [there are other issues, but just taking this one alone]
So I'm not 100% sure what you mean; please clarify if I understand you correctly.
While there's information in the environment, there's not very much: consider the white and yoke of a chicken egg. Like letters etched in metal with acid, most of the information is in the placement of the letters; the exact nature of the chemical reaction contributes a very small amount of information. Can you indicate why you think there is a great deal of information originating in the environment?
Yes, the heath of the mother can have an effect, but that's if she is unhealthy, and development does not proceed normally. Assuming she's healthy, the specific condition of the mother doesn't determine whether or not a human being is created. Are you suggesting otherwise?