No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence

by William A. Dembski

Overview

Darwin's greatest accomplishment was to show how life might be explained as the result of natural selection. But does Darwin's theory mean that life was unintended? William A. Dembski argues that it does not. In this book Dembski extends his theory of intelligent design. Building on his earlier work in The Design Inference (Cambridge, 1998), he defends that life must be the product of intelligent design. Critics of Dembski's work have argued that evolutionary algorithms show that life can be explained apart from intelligence. But by employing powerful recent results from the No Free Lunch Theory, Dembski addresses and decisively refutes such claims. As the leading proponent of intelligent design, Dembski reveals a designer capable of originating the complexity and specificity found throughout the cosmos. Scientists and theologians alike will find this book of interest as it brings the question of creation firmly into the realm of scientific debate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742558106
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/01/2007
Edition description:	New
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

William A. Dembski is associate research professor in the conceptual foundations of science at Baylor University and senior fellow with Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture in Seattle.

Table of Contents

Part 1 List of Illustrations Part 2 Preface Part 3 The Third Mode of Explanation Chapter 4 Necessity, Chance, and Design Chapter 5 Rehabilitating Design Chapter 6 The Complexity-Specification Criterion Chapter 7 Specification Chapter 8 Probabilistic Resources Chapter 9 False Negatives and False Positives Chapter 10 Why the Criterion Works Chapter 11 The Darwinian Challenge to Design Chapter 12 The Constraning of Contingency Chapter 13 The Darwinian Extrapolation Part 14 Another Way to Detect Design? Chapter 15 Fisher's Approach to Eliminating Chance Chapter 16 Generalizing Fisher's Approach Chapter 17 Case Study: Nicholas Caputo Chapter 18 Case Study: The Comprehensibility of Bit Strings Chapter 19 Detachability Chapter 20 Sweeping the Field of Chance Hypotheses Chapter 21 Justifying the Generalization Chapter 22 The Inflation of Probabilistic Resources Chapter 23 Design by Comparison Chapter 24 Design by Elimination Part 25 Specified Complexity as Information Chapter 26 Information Chapter 27 Syntactic, Statistical, and Algorithmic Information Chapter 28 Information in Context Chapter 29 Conceptual and Physical Information Chapter 30 Complex Specified Information Chapter 31 Semantic Information Chapter 32 Biological Information Chapter 33 The Origin of Comlex Specified Information Chapter 34 The Law of Conservation of Information Chapter 35 A Fourth Law of Thermodynamics? Part 36 Evolutionary Algorithms Chapter 37 METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL Chapter 38 Optimization Chapter 39 Statement of the Problem Chapter 40 Choosing the Right Fitness Function Chapter 41 Blind Search Chapter 42 The No Free Lunch Theorems Chapter 43 The Displacement Problem Chapter 44 Darwinian Evolution in Nature Chapter 45 Following the Information Trail Chapter 46 Coevolving Fitness Landscapes Part 47 The Emergence of Irreducibly Complex Systems Chapter 48 The Casual Specificity Problem Chapter 49 The Challenge of Irreducible Complexity Chapter 50 Scaffolding and Roman Arches Chapter 51 Co-optation, Patchwork, and Bricolage Chapter 52 Incremental Indispensability Chapter 53 Reducible Complexity Chapter 54 Miscellaneous Objections Chapter 55 The Logic of Invariants Chapter 56 Fine-Tuning Irreducible Complexity Chapter 57 Doing the Calculation Part 58 Design as a Scientific Research Program Chapter 59 Outline of a Positive Research Program Chapter 60 The Pattern of Evolution Chapter 61 The Incompleteness of Natural Laws Chapter 62 Does Specified Complexity Have a Mechanism? Chapter 63 The Nature of Nature Chapter 64 Must All Design in Nature Be Front-Loaded? Chapter 65 Embodied and Unembodied Designers Chapter 66 Who Designed the Designer? Chapter 67 Testability Chapter 68 Magic, Mechanism, and Design Part 69 Index

Editorial Reviews

No Free Lunch is written for scholars and is filled with equations and careful technical definitions. Much of the text, however, is accessible for a broad audience and the book should prove useful to anyone wishing to explore the degree to which intelligent design can be formulated in a mathematically rigorous way.

Research News and Opportunities In Science and Theology

In No Free Lunch, William Dembski gives the most profound challenge to the Modern Synthetic Theory of Evolution since this theory was first formulated in the 1930s. I differ from Dembski on some points, mainly in ways which strengthen his conclusion.

Frank J. Tipler

This sequel to The Design Inference further enhances the credibility of Intelligent Design as a sound research program. Through solid historical and philosophical arguments, Dembski succeeds in showing how specified complexity reliably detects design. His critique of Darwinian and other naturalistic accounts of evolution is built on a set of powerful and lucid arguments; his formulation of an alternative to these accounts is simply compelling.

Muzaffar Iqbal

The valid philosophical arguments and historical examples make the study really agreeable to a large audience.

Auss

Dembski lays the foundations for a research project aimed at answering one of the most fundamental scientific questions of our time: What is the maximal specified complexity that can be reasonably expected to emerge (in a given time frame) with and without various design assumptions?

Moshe Koppel

One of the best books available about ID.

Journal of Scientific Exploration

In this book, William Dembski takes his statistical work on inferring design and translates it into an information-theoretic apparatus relevant to understanding biological fitness. In doing so, he has brought his argument for intelligent design into a domain that overlaps current work in evolutionary biology. As I see it, this is a landmark for intelligent design theory because, for the first time, it makes it possible to objectively evaluate the claims of evolutionary biology and intelligent design on common ground.

Martin Poenie

I disagree strongly with the position taken by William Dembski. But I do think that he argues strongly and that those of us who do not accept his conclusions should read his book and form our own opinions and counterarguments. He should not be ignored.

Michael Ruse

In No Free Lunch, William Dembski gives the most profound challenge to the Modern Synthetic Theory of Evolution since this theory was first formulated in the 1930s. I differ from Dembski on some points, mainly in ways which strengthen his conclusion.” —Frank J. Tipler, professor of mathematical physics, Tulane University; coauthor of The Anthropic Cosmological Principle; and author of The Physic

“In this book, William Dembski takes his statistical work on inferring design and translates it into an information-theoretic apparatus relevant to understanding biological fitness. In doing so, he has brought his argument for intelligent design into a domain that overlaps current work in evolutionary biology. As I see it, this is a landmark for intelligent design theory because, for the first time, it makes it possible to objectively evaluate the claims of evolutionary biology and intelligent design on common ground.” —Martin Poenie, associate professor of biology, University of Texas at Austin

“Dembski lays the foundations for a research project aimed at answering one of the most fundamental scientific questions of our time: What is the maximal specified complexity that can be reasonably expected to emerge (in a given time frame) with and without various design assumptions?” —Moshe Koppel, professor of mathematics, Bar-llan University, Israel

“This sequel to The Design Inference further enhances the credibility of Intelligent Design as a sound research program. Through solid historical and philosophical arguments, Dembski succeeds in showing how specified complexity reliably detects design. His critique of Darwinian and other naturalistic accounts of evolution is built on a set of powerful and lucid arguments; his formulation of an alternative to these accounts is simply compelling.” —Muzaffar Iqbal, author of Islam and Science and founder-president of the Center for Islam and Science (CIS)

“The valid philosophical arguments and historical examples make the study really agreeable to a large audience.” —Auss

“I disagree strongly with the position taken by William Dembski. But I do think that he argues strongly and that those of us who do not accept his conclusions should read his book and form our own opinions and counterarguments. He should not be ignored.” —Michael Ruse, Florida State University

“No Free Lunch is written for scholars and is filled with equations and careful technical definitions. Much of the text, however, is accessible for a broad audience and the book should prove useful to anyone wishing to explore the degree to which intelligent design can be formulated in a mathematically rigorous way.” —Research News and Opportunities In Science and Theology

“One of the best books available about ID.” —Journal of Scientific Exploration

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