Is specified complexity a circular concept? A friend of mine said so.
Leslie Orgel said: ''Living things are distinguished by their specified complexity. Crystals such as granite fail to qualify as living because they lack complexity; mixtures of random polymers fail to qualify because they lack specificity''.
My friend: ''ABSOLUTELY WRONG!
Living things are distinguished by their autonomy, since they are autonomous agents that present their own active processes such as growth, reproduction, locomotion, regeneration, etc. Although living beings are indeed complex, this is not theoretically crucial to their recognition as such. If simple entities like crystal spheres moved on their own, grew up, reproduced, etc., we would have to recognize them as living or totally change the way we understand life.
To make matters worse, note that there is no definition of what such a specification is, which, without surprise, is more of a begged question, for it is obvious that what they understand as this specificity is precisely the result of a intelligent information, which would explain the appearance of design''.
Do you agree with this? What's your take on specified complexity?
Leslie Orgel said: ''Living things are distinguished by their specified complexity. Crystals such as granite fail to qualify as living because they lack complexity; mixtures of random polymers fail to qualify because they lack specificity''.
My friend: ''ABSOLUTELY WRONG!
Living things are distinguished by their autonomy, since they are autonomous agents that present their own active processes such as growth, reproduction, locomotion, regeneration, etc. Although living beings are indeed complex, this is not theoretically crucial to their recognition as such. If simple entities like crystal spheres moved on their own, grew up, reproduced, etc., we would have to recognize them as living or totally change the way we understand life.
To make matters worse, note that there is no definition of what such a specification is, which, without surprise, is more of a begged question, for it is obvious that what they understand as this specificity is precisely the result of a intelligent information, which would explain the appearance of design''.
Do you agree with this? What's your take on specified complexity?
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