Information and Natural Processes

• The more we learn about the simple cell (which by the way is much much much more complex than people like Darwin thought back in 1859 when he hypothesized on "the origin of species"), the more people turn away from the theory of evolution (which will be discussed in this webpage: click here)

• In order to reproduce itself (i.e., make a copy of itself), the cell employs an information encoding system - called the genetic code

  The encoded information is stored - as you well know - in the DNA molecules inside the nucleus of a cell

• The information is stored using the genetic code and a transcription system is employed to "read" the information encoded by the DNA molecules

• The amount of information stored is enormous and the encoding/decoding system employed is just like communication systems designed by humans...

• These findings have even persuaded the well-known outspoken atheist Antony Flew to turn away his atheism and believe in some form of higher super being as author of life: click here

• We know 2 forms of "things" in the universe:
  • Matter
  • Energy

  (OK, a little side note is necessary...

  According to the latest research in Cosmology, the universe is made up of 25% of matter and energy, the other 75% of "dark matter" and "dark energy". Dark matter is not matter that does not radiate; it's unknown matter.... Dark matter is supposed to exert a repelling force !!! This hypothesis is developed to explain the finding that --- for an unknown reason --- that the rate of expansion of the universe is accellerating.

  Let's us not concern ourself with these strange "dark matter" or "dark energy" for now and stay with what we do know...)

• So is "information" something of matter or something of energy ???

• Is this information?

  All grass is green

• How about this. Is this information?

  Las hierbas son verdes

• Now, how about this. Is this information?

• From Physics, we know that everything in the universe is either matter or energy

• So is information a form of MATTER ?

  Strictly speaking, NO.

  The information may be recorded with matter, but matter alone is not information.

  For example, the following piece of matter is NOT information because you don't understand it:

• So is information a form of ENERGY ?

  Certainly not, the piece of text containing the information that "All grass is green" does not have any activity that we associate with energy.

Experts in Information Theory defines 5 LEVELS of Information:

• Statistics
• Syntax
• Semantics
• Pragmatics
• Aprobatics

Schematically:

	Transmitter	Level of information	Receiver
Level 1	Transmitted signal	Statistics	Received signal
Level 2	Transmission using a code	Syntax	Decode signal
Level 3	Express an idea/thought	Semantics	Understand idea/meaning
Level 4	Expess a command/action	Pragmatics	Understand command and able to perform action
Level 5	Express intended results	Apobetics	Achieve aim

To process the information at a higher level, more intelligence will be needed.

• Statistical information is the lowest level of information

• To process statistical information, the only intelligence that is needed is know how to count.

• Example:

  Las hierbas son verdes

  Statistical Information:

  • 2 a's
  • 1 b's
  • 1 d's
  • and so on...

• Information is put together based on certain rules (structure).

• Syntactical information is related to the rules used to put the information together.

• For example, a common way to record information is:

  SUBJECT ACTION OBJECT

  Such rules is called a "syntax rule"

• Before you can record information, you need to learn the SYNTAX rules

• Semantical information is the MEANING of the information

  Semantical information not only has structure, but also meaning (and it is thus more complex)

• For example:

  Notice that INFORMATION is always sent from some sender to some receiver (receiver can be the sender himself, e.g., class notes)

  The intended meaning of this particular information is to bring the receiver to the sender

• Pragmatics is the executing/performing the actions that correspond to the meaning of the information

  Pragmatics does not only have meaning, it requires mechanisms to carry out the meaning (and it is thus a higher form of information).

• For example:

• Another pragmatic information system:

  When you (the sender) inserted the right amount of change and press "Coke", the dispensing machine (receiver) will release a can of Coke.

• NOTE:

  All pragmatical information systems that exist in this world have ALL been designed by Intelligent Beings (humans)

• Apobetics concerns the intended purpose and the achieved results of the information and is somewhat difficult to understand.

  Illustrate with some examples:

  • the intended purpose of singing of some birds: some male birds sing to gain the attention of the female or to lay claim to a particular territory -
  • Intended purpose of slogans of advertisement: with the advertising slogan for a detergent, the manufacturer would like to persuade the receiver to decide in favour of its product.

• Information is exchanged by two entities.

• The interacting entities are commonly humans (e.g., information exchange in conversation), but more and more commonly, the information exchange are done between machines (e.g., computers exchange information all the time !!!)

In order for a sender and a receiver to EXCHANGE information, it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to define a CODE

Furthermore:

In order for a sender and a receiver to EXCHANGE information, it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY that the sender and receiver USE THE SAME CODE

• Telegraph Communication: Morse Code

  ...   ---   ...

  S O S

• Computer Communication: ASCII Code

  ASCII American Standard Code of Information Interchange

  00000000 NUL 00000001 SOH 00000010 STX 00000011 ETX 00000100 EOT 00000101 ENQ 00000110 ACK 00000111 BEL 00001000 BS 00001001 HT 00001010 NL 00001011 VT 00001100 NP 00001101 CR 00001110 SO 00001111 SI 00010000 DLE 00010001 DC1 00010010 DC2 00010011 DC3 .... 00110000 0 00110001 1 00110010 2 00110011 3 (numbers) 00110100 4 00110101 5 00110110 6 00110111 7 00111000 8 00111001 9 .... ... ... 01000001 A 01000001 B 01000010 C (letters) .....

• If one computer wants to send the English message "Hello" to another computer using ASCII code, the computer will send the following serie of "bit" (or binary digits) over the connection:

• When you look around you, you will discover that when two entities (humans or machines or whatever) communicate with one another - some code is used

• I am NOT aware of ANY non-living COMMUNICATING system (that must uses some CODE) whose code WAS NOT DESIGNED by some INTELLIGENT BEING (some human)

• Molecular biologists have been studying the genetic CODE (yes, they do recognize that it is a CODE !) for over a decade now in the human genome project: click here

• Scientists have identified all of the approximate 30,000 genes in human DNA and determined the sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA. (Although we have identified the chemical compounds, we still don't know what they do....)

• Molecular biologists have found that chemical processes in life are controlled by genes in the DNA and the information are encoded on the DNA in every living cell is purely

• They also discover that there is a communication process going on inside every living cell (between the nucleus and the ribosome (the protein factory of a cell))

• And the more scientists learn about these chemical processes that are happening within a living cell, the more they are convinced that these processes were put in place by some "genius of geniuses"...

  I will summarize what they have found below.

• By the way - this evidence, although very unlikely, can still be explained away by random processes. In fact, anything can be explained away by random processes. So if you do not WANT to believe in a Creator, He will not force you to do so.

• Information written in the English language is written with an alphabet - information written in the language of life is also written in an alphabet....

  Note that the information of life is stored inside the DNA of a living cell !!!

• The English alphabet has 26 letters.

  There are 4 letters in the alphabet of life:

  • Adenine (A)
  • Thymine (T)
  • Guanine (C)
  • Cytosine (G)

  which that the basic chemical compounds that make up the DNA (see click here )

• DNA resides inside the nucleus of the cell as a double helix:

• The words of the English language are made up from the letters of the alphabet.

  The words of life or "codons" are made of exactly 3 "letters of life"

  Each group of 3 "letters of life" corresponds to one amino-acid in the following manner:

  x	Amino		x	Amino		x	Amino		x	Amino
  Codon	Acid		Codon	Acid		Codon	Acid		Codon	Acid
  TTT	Phe		TCT	Ser		TAT	Tyr		TGT	Cys
  TTC	Phe		TCC	Ser		TAC	Tyr		TGC	Cys
  TTA	Leu		TCA	Ser		TAA	STOP		TGA	STOP
  TTG	Leu		TCG	Ser		TAG	STOP		TGG	Trp
  CTT	Leu		CCT	Pro		CAT	His		CGT	Arg
  CTC	Leu		CCC	Pro		CAC	His		CGC	Arg
  CTA	Leu		CCA	Pro		CAA	Gln		CGA	Arg
  CTG	Leu		CCG	Pro		CAG	Gln		CGG	Arg
  ATT	Ile		ACT	Thr		AAT	Asn		AGT	Ser
  ATC	Ile		ACC	Thr		AAC	Asn		AGC	Ser
  ATA	Ile		ACA	Thr		AAA	Lys		AGA	Arg
  ATG	Met/START		ACG	Thr		AAG	Lys		AGG	Arg
  GTT	Val		GCT	Ala		GAT	Asp		GGT	Gly
  GTC	Val		GCC	Ala		GAC	Asp		GGC	Gly
  GTA	Val		GCA	Ala		GAA	Glu		GGA	Gly
  GTG	Val		GCG	Ala		GAG	Glu		GGG	Gly

• This table is called the GENETIC CODE

• (Since there are 3 "spaces" and each "space" can be one of the "letter" 'A', 'T', 'C' or 'G', there are 4³ 64 possible codons and each codon corresponds to the selection of EXACTLY one (of 20 possible) amino-acid - the building block for proteins for living cells. Here is a webpage descibing their properies: click here )

The following figure compares the ways that one computer communicates with another computer and the nucleus of a cell communicates with the ribosome of the cell

Recall that the ribosome is the "protein production" place in the cell: Click here

• When a computer wants to send a message to another computer, it first sends the special "START OF MESSAGE" symbol 00000010

• The computer send the special "END OF MESSAGE" symbol 00000011 to indicate the end of the transmission

• In between the "START OF MESSAGE" and "END OF MESSAGE" codes, each 8 bits (binary digits) corresponds to one character

• I must remind you that the communication code used by the computer DID NOT come about by the computers themselves, but was DESIGNED by HUMANS.

• A gene starts with a special start codon ATG

• A gene ends with one of the special stop codons TAA, TAG or TGA

• In between the start codon and the stop codon, each 3 bases corresponds to/encodes one amino-acid molecule.

• The sequence/order of the codons is very very specific.

  Every gene (sequence of codon) encodes the instructions to make a specific protein that the cell needs to function.

• The genetic code is by no means "cracked"....

  Just recently, scientists discovers another code embedded in the genetic code: "The second code, superimposed on the first, sets the placement of the nucleosomes, miniature protein spools around which the DNA is looped. The spools both protect and control access to the DNA itself."

  It's like a puzzle inside a puzzle... and to think a random process has created this engenius encoding and the huge amount of information (instructions to manufacture proteins)... yeah right... (See: click here)

• No wonder Antony Flew caved in and became a deist... ( click here) but he still has a long way to recognize the one true God... Hope he find Him before his time runs out....

Compare the way that one computer communicates with another, and the way that the nucleus of the cell communicates with the ribosome.

Do you believe that this system

• came about by natural processes - like a thunder bolt ???? or
• it was DESIGNED by a SUPER-GENIUS BEING ???

If the analogy of two phenomenon are very close and striking while at the same time, the cause of ONE of the phenomenon is very obvious; it becomes scaresely possible to refuse to admit the action of an analogous cause in the other phenomenon, though (the cause of the other phenomenon is) not so obvious in itself" --- in "Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy", London, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1831, page 149.

• When you see that:
  • the way genetic information encoded in the DNA is exactly the same as what we humans would do to encode information in our books, computers, etc;
  • the way that the nucleus communicates with its ribosome is similar to how we humans has designed computers to communicate with one another,

  then one has to AT LEAST stop and wonder whether some intelligent being has designed the genetic code and made the communication system between the nucleus and its ribosomes....

  Although this is not a conclusive proof of the existence of God, it should AT LEAST make one STOP and THINK about the possibility of the existence of God....

• According to Walter L. Bradley in "The Case for Faith" (pp 107):

  "The optimism of the 1950s is gone. The mood at the 1999 International Conference on Origin of Life was described as grim - full of frustration, pessimism and desperation"

• Experts such as molecular biologists that work with DNA and genetic codes every day can clearly see that the information stored in the DNA is based on coding techniques developed by humans - like a Morse code, ASCII code, etc.

  Read here an interesting conversation that reporter Walter Caylor had (in 2000) with a molecular biologist. It is interesting and shocking to hear what experts in genetic research are saying about the genetic codes: click here - I made a copy on my local hard drive, the original copy of the column can be found here: click here

• At 81 yrs old, famous Atheist Antony Flew becomes deist.

  Antony Flew had been an atheist all his life and was a very prominant defender of the atheist "faith". At age 81, he is now convinced that the complex information found in the DNA of cells can't be there by "accident". Some higher intelligence had put the information there...

  ABC news' story: click here

• Scientistific community acting closed-minded towards scientific paper on Information in DNA

  The argument that a Higher Intelligence had created the information inside the cell is so convincing that a scientific journal had published the following peer-reviewed paper (i.e., it passed 3 highly respected scientists scrutiny). However, the editor in charge of the science journal is in deep trouble... His career is down the drain because he allowed the publication...

  The scientific paper is here: Click here

  News about the fate of the editor is here: Click here

  Reaction of some evolutionist to this scientific article: Click here