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Truth, Beauty, and the Reflection of God
Get PDFThe guiding lights of modern architecture mainly focus on form and function. How- ever, historically, architecture has been guided by a deeper sense of calling. John Ruskin, a 19th century critic, used the Gothic style of cathedrals as an example to his contemporaries of the transcendental and moral ideals of architecture, which he categorizes as seven lamps or laws. Just as Gothic architecture served as a palimpsest to Ruskin, Ruskin’s work is beginning to serve as a palimpsest to a new generation of architects whose designs and structures incorporate various aspects of his seven lamps
Developing Insights into the Design of the Simplest Self-Replicator and Its Abstract Complexity, Part 2
No full textThis is the second in a three-part series investigating the internals of the simplest possible self-replicator (SSR). It builds on the construction of a hypothetical self- replicator devised in Part 1 and considers various significant aspects about the design and construction of an artificial, concrete SSR: the material basis of its construction, the e↵ects of the variable geometry of the SSR during its growth through the cloning and division phases, and the three closure rules that must be satisfied by the SSR— energy closure, material closure, and information closure.
The highest technical challenges that need to be faced by the design and construction of the artificial SSR are considered. The emerging complexity of the artificial SSR is depicted using a metaphorical comparison of the SSR with a city fully populated by automated machinery that systematically constructs a new city that is identical to the old city without external help but only using the construction materials that enter through the city gateways. The current level of technology is evaluated to determine if it is sucient for the successful completion of the design and construction of an artificial autonomous SSR project using either a nano-biochemical basis or or a macro-material basis.
Part 1 of this series analyzed the basic necessary design elements of the sim- plest self-replicator (SSR), including necessary components, functions, processes, and information. Having established the minimum requirements for the design, this part will discuss the physical implementation of the SSR
Algorithmic Specified Complexity
Get PDFEngineers like to think that they produce something different from that of a chaotic system. The Eiffel tower is fundamentally different from the same components lying in a heap on the ground. Mt. Rushmore is fundamentally different from a random mountainside. But engineers lack a good method for quantifying this idea. This has led some to reject the idea that engineered or designed systems can be detected. Various methods have been proposed, each of which has various faults. Some have trouble distinguishing noise from data, some are subjective, etc. For this study, conditional Kolmogorov complexity is used to measure the degree of specification of an object. The Kolmogorov complexity of an object is the length of the shortest computer program required to describe that object. Conditional Kolmogorov complexity is Kolmogorov complexity with access to a context. The program can extract information from the context in a variety of ways allowing more compression. The more compressible an object is, the greater the evidence that the object is specified. Random noise is incompressible, and so compression indicates that the object is not simply random noise. This model is intended to launch further dialog on use of conditional Kolmogorov complexity in the measurement of specified complexity
Developing Insights into the Design of the Simplest Self-Replicator and Its Abstract Complexity, Part 1
No full textThis is the first in a three-part series investigating the internals of the simplest possible self-replicator (SSR). The SSR is defined as having an enclosure with input and output gateways and having the ability to create an exact replica of itself by ingesting and processing materials from its environment. This first part takes an analytical approach and identifies, one by one, the internal functions that must operate inside the SSR to be a fully autonomous replicator
Complex Specified Information (CSI) Collecting
Get PDFIntelligent Design Theory makes use of the concept of intelligent agency as a distinct causal mode, distinct from chance or algorithmic modes of causation. The influence of such agency is often detected by the contribution of information to a search process. Assuming humans are capable of such causal roles, then it should be possible to measure the amount of information that a human is contributing to such a process. This is done by measuring the success rate for a search for a solution to a computationally hard problem by both humans and computers. The methodology used for this experiment was not successful, but it is hoped that the experimental setup and methodology will inspire further improvement and research in this area
Developing Insights into the Design of the Simplest Self-Replicator and Its Abstract Complexity, Part 3
No full textThis is the last in a three-part series investigating the internals of the simplest possible self-replicator (SSR). Part 1 and Part 2 investigated the necessary design and possible physical implementation of such a self-replicator. This last installment compares potential man-made self-replication to the existing natural self-replicators on Earth, present in the structured hierarchy of ecosystems throughout the world. The insights offered by this series are used to reflect upon possible scenarios for the origin of life and their implications
Reversible Universe
Get PDFRecent advances in the field of engineering design suggest the usefulness of the concept of affordance for reverse engineering of both man-made and natural systems. An affordance is simply what a system provides to an end-user or to another part of the system. With the current recognition that engineering concepts are playing a key role in deciphering the workings of complex natural systems such as the living cell and the human brain, affordance-based reverse engineering procedures should be considered as appropriate tools for this work. Such an approach may have important implications for philosophy and theology.
Procedures for reverse engineering and design recovery have become well-defined in several fields, especially computer software and hardware, where pattern detection and identification play important roles. These procedures can also be readily applied to complex natural systems where patterns of multiple interacting affordances facilitate the development, sustenance and education of advanced life forms such as human beings. Thinking about the human condition in terms of affordances leads to a new and fruitful interaction between the fields of science and theology, in which the field of engineering plays a key role in the dialogue. Proper understanding of the interplay between both positive and negative affordances in the context of engi- neering design under necessary constraints leads to a clearer worldview and a better understanding of mankind’s place and purpose in the universe
The Independence and Proper Roles of Engineering and Metaphysics in Support of an Integrated Understanding of God's Creation
No full textIn the speculative (or “theoretical”) sciences—including mathematics, natural sciences, and metaphysics—the world is studied independent of human volition, calling people to recognize the truths obtained about the world as valuable in their own right. Indeed, these disciplines are ordered to “understanding-thinking” as an end in itself. The engineering disciplines, in contrast, are productive sciences ordered to “understanding-making”—not as ends in themselves but to achieve practical ends per our wills.
Natural science and engineering focus on different subject areas. In physics all forms of natural non-living matter in physical motion are studied by modeling “objects” according to mathematical formalisms while employing univocal terms such as force, energy, mass, charge, etc. In biology all natural living things are studied. In engineering disciplines knowledge gained from the natural sciences is applied to achieve practical ends—to the making of artificial things (artifacts). (Principles of motion of natural things are immanent to them, whereas artifacts’ principles of motion are imposed externally.)
The knowledge obtained by the particular (or individual) natural sciences and engineering disciplines is limited because they all presuppose certain extra-scientific concepts and principles. These concepts and principles cannot be derived from any of the natural sciences themselves, for that would be circular. Moreover, the scientific method cannot validate its own ability to guide scientists to truths about creation: it cannot be the epistemic arbiter of all knowledge—otherwise known as the non- scientific pseudo-philosophy of scientism.
It falls to metaphysics to include the study of the most general principles com- mon to all contingent beings—whether natures or artifacts. For example, it is not the reduced understanding of motion studied in physics through physical ecient causality that is studied within metaphysics, but all manifestations of change qua change. Metaphysics does not ask, “how do objects change?” but “what is change?” In metaphysics, reality is studied in ontological terms (hence, also employing analo- gous terms), for it must understand what being, change, substance, accident, cause, potency, act, essence, etc. are in their widest throw. Moreover, metaphysics cannot be reduced to a crude synonym for “worldview”: it is a rigorous speculative science that inter alia animates the coordinating role a realist philosophy of nature plays for the particular natural sciences and engineering.
It falls within a realist philosophy of nature to study the most common principles of the natural sciences. To provide the foundational principles which all particular sciences and engineering disciplines presuppose, there must be a way of knowing nature whose subject matter concerns the principles and causes of natural things insofar as they are natural—that is, subject to change per principles immanent to themselves. A realist philosophy of nature therefore has the same general subject matter as the natural sciences, but it applies general philosophical (rather than specific scientific) methods to study nature, and it does not suffer the operational restrictions of method- ological naturalism.
Philosophy of nature must be distinguished from philosophy of science—the latter of which includes the study of systems of reasoning about natural things. It must not be confused with philosophical naturalism, nor should it be conflated with the term “natural philosophy” as used during the Enlightenment, whose antecedents reflect a slow, incremental drift from a unified understanding of nature into the fragmentary and highly-specified particular sciences observed today
Using Turing Oracles in Cognitive Models of Problem-Solving
Get PDFAt the core of engineering is human problem-solving. Creating a cognitive model of the task of problem-solving is helpful for planning and organizing engineering tasks. One possibility rarely considered in modeling cognitive processes is the use of Turing Oracles. Copeland (1998) put forth the possibility that the mind could be viewed as an oracle machine, but he never applied that idea practically. Oracles enable the modeling of processes in the mind which are not computationally based. Using oracles resolves many of the surprising results of computational problem-solving which arise as a result of the Tractable Cognition Thesis and similar mechanistic models of the mind. However, as research into the use of Turing Oracles in problem-solving is new, there are many methodological issues
Calculating Software Complexity Using the Halting Problem
No full textCalculating the complexity of software projects is important to software engineering as it helps in estimating the likely locations of bugs as well as the number of resources required to modify certain program areas. Cyclomatic complexity is one of the pri- mary estimators of software complexity which operates by counted branch points in software code. However, cyclomatic complexity assumes that all branch points are equally complex. Some types of branch points require more creativity and foresight to understand and program correctly than others. Specifically, when knowledge of the behavior of a loop or recursion requires solving a problem similar to the halting problem, that loop has intrinsically more complexity than other types of loops or conditions. Halting-problem-like problems can be detected by looking for loops whose termination conditions are not intrinsically bound in the looping construct. These types of loops are counted to find the program complexity. This metric is orthogonal to cyclomatic complexity (which remains useful) rather than as a substitute for it