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Intelligent Design:

Intelligent Design is a scientific theory that intelligent causes are responsible for the origin of the universe and of life and its
diversity. It holds that design is empirically detectable in nature, and particularly in living systems.

Intelligent Design is an intellectual movement that includes a scientific research program for investigating intelligent causes and
that challenges naturalistic explanations of origins which currently drive science education and research.

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Purpose of the Prize

How does nature's genetic programming achieve such long sequences of highly functional decision-node
selections?

By what mechanism does biological nature set its algorithmic switch settings?

How do so many biochemical pathways get integrated into one coherent, unified, and sophisticated metabolic
process?

"The Origin-of-Life Prize" ® is being offered to stimulate research into chaos, complexity, information,
probability, self-organization, and artificial life/intelligence theories as they relate directly to biochemical and
molecular biological reality. The Foundation wishes to encourage the pursuit of natural-process explanations and
mechanisms of initial "gene" emergence within nature. The subject of interest is the genesis of primordial
functional information itself rather than its physico-chemical matrix of retention and transmission. Bioinformation
fits into the category of "prescriptive information" ("instruction," rather than mere probabilistic combinatorics
[Abel, 2000, 2002]). By what mechanisms do stochastic ensembles acquire instructive/integrative potential? In
other words, what are the processes whereby random biopolymeric sequences self-organize into indirect,
functional code?

Central questions of interest relate to the definition and nature of "genetic instructions" and "biomessage." Is
genetic recipe adequately represented and described by "mutual entropy" (shared, correlative uncertainty
between transmitter and receiver)? At what point and by what processes do "biofunction" and "biosystem" enter
into the chemical evolution of bioinformation?

What is a reasonable, empirically-accountable definition of "minimal life"?

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The Origin-of-Life Prize ®



Last updated January, 2003



Description and Purpose of the Prize

"The Origin-of-Life Prize" ® (hereafter called "the Prize") consists of $1.35 Million (USD) paid directly to the
winner(s). The Prize will be awarded for proposing a highly plausible mechanism for the spontaneous rise of
genetic instructions in nature sufficient to give rise to life. To win, the explanation must be consistent with
empirical biochemical and thermodynamic concepts as further delineated herein, and be published in a
well-respected, peer-reviewed science journal(s).

The one-time Prize will be paid to the winner(s) as a twenty-year annuity in hopes of discouraging theorists'
immediate retirement from productive careers. The annuity consists of $67,500.00 (U.S.) per year for twenty
consecutive years, totalling 1.35 million dollars in payments.

The ability of the Foundation to underwrite these payments and to administer the Project is monitored by the
well-known accounting firm of Young, Brophy and Company, Certified Public Accountants.

Formal application by submitters is required to win. Submitters must expressly consent to abide by all terms and
conditions of the Prize before judging of their paper(s) can begin.

Topic relates to: Rules for The Origin of Life Prize; The Gene Emergence Project; The Origin of Genetic Instructions Prize;
Chemical Evolution; Prebiotic Evolution; Abiogenesis; Self-replication; Self-organization; Auto-catalysis; Mutual Catalysis;
Abiotic Synthesis; Protobiont; Protocell; Protometabolism; Primordial Milieu; Astrobiology; Exobiology; RNA World;
Protein World; Coevolution; Biopoesis; Biogenesis; Lipid world; Homochirality; Bilipid; Self-ordering; Complexity Theory;
Artificial Life; Alife; Minimalist Genomes; Minimal Genomes; Code Origin; Genetic Code Theory; Protogene Theory;
Minigene; Mini Gene; Clay Matrix; Mineral Adsorption; Bioinformation Theory; Semiotics; Biomessage Theory; Message
Theory; SETI; Emergent Properties; Initial Gene Emergence; Biological Information Theory; Aperiodic Specified
Complexity; Specified Aperiodicity; Molecular evolution; Messenger Molecules; Information Theory; Chaos Theory;
Function Theory; Biofunction Theory; Instruction Theory; Linguistic Theory; Irreducible Complexity; Biopolymers;
Thermophiles; GARD; Extremophiles; Hyperthermophiles; Archaea; Prokaryotes; Neural Nets; Decision Theory; Artificial
Intelligence; AI; Polarized light from neutron stars.



| next |

Copyright © 1998-2002 THE GENE EMERGENCE PROJECT®

The Origin-of-Life Prize ®

is offered through

The Gene Emergence Project ®

of The Origin-of-Life Foundation, Inc. ®

life@us.net

Watch for updates here on the www at...

us.net / life

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Intelligent Design position statement
Detecting Design in the Natural Sciences
Intelligence leaves behind a characteristic signature.
By William A. Dembski
Chance,
necessity, or
design covers
every eventuality
in ordinary life.

In ordinary life, explanations that invoke chance, necessity, or design
cover every eventuality. Nevertheless, in the natural sciences one of
these modes of explanation is considered superfluous -- namely, design.
From the perspective of the natural sciences, design, as the action of an
intelligent agent, is not a fundamental creative force in nature. Rather,
blind natural causes, characterized by chance and necessity and ruled by
unbroken laws, are thought sufficient to do all nature's creating. Darwin's
theory is a case in point.
Does nature
require no help
from a designing
intelligence?

But how do we know that nature requires no help from a designing
intelligence? Certainly, in special sciences ranging from forensics to
archaeology to SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), appeal
to a designing intelligence is indispensable. What's more, within these
sciences there are well-developed techniques for identifying intelligence.
Essential to all these techniques is the ability to eliminate chance and
necessity.
Complex,
sequenced
patterns exhibit
intelligence in
their design.





For instance, how do the radio astronomers in Contact (the Jodie Foster
movie based on Carl Sagan's novel of the same name) infer the presence
of extraterrestrial intelligence in the beeps and pauses they monitor from
space? The researchers run signals through computers that are
programmed to recognize many preset patterns. Signals that do not match
any of the patterns pass through the "sieve" and are classified as random.
After years of receiving apparently meaningless "random" signals, the
researchers discover a pattern of beats and pauses that corresponds to
the sequence of all the prime numbers between 2 and 101. (Prime
numbers, of course, are those that are divisible only by themselves and by
one.) When a sequence begins with 2 beats, then a pause, 3 beats, then
a pause . . . and continues all the way to 101 beats, the researchers must
infer the presence of an extraterrestrial intelligence.
If a sequence
lacks complexity,
it could easily
happen by
chance.

Here's why. There's nothing in the laws of physics that requires radio
signals to take one form or another. The sequence is therefore contingent
rather than necessary. Also, it is a long sequence and therefore complex.
Note that if the sequence lacked complexity, it could easily have
happened by chance. Finally, it was not just complex but also exhibited an
independently given pattern or specification (it was not just any old
sequence of numbers but a mathematically significant one -- the prime
numbers).
Specified
complexity: the
characteristic
trademark or
signature of
intelligence.

Intelligence leaves behind a characteristic trademark or signature -- what
I call "specified complexity." An event exhibits specified complexity if it is
contingent and therefore not necessary; if it is complex and therefore not
easily repeatable by chance; and if it is specified in the sense of exhibiting
an independently given pattern. Note that complexity in the sense of
improbability is not sufficient to eliminate chance: flip a coin long enough,
and you'll witness a highly complex or improbable event. Even so, you'll
have no reason not to attribute it to chance.
Specifications
must be
objectively given.

The important thing about specifications is that they be objectively given
and not just imposed on events after the fact. For instance, if an archer
shoots arrows into a wall and we then paint bull's-eyes around them, we
impose a pattern after the fact. On the other hand, if the targets are set
up in advance ("specified") and then the archer hits them accurately, we
know it was by design.

Undirected
natural processes
are incapable of
generating the
specified
complexity in
organisms.

In my book The Design Inference, I argue that specified complexity reliably
detects design. In that book, however, I focus largely on examples from
the human rather than the natural sciences. The main criticism of that
work to date concerns whether the Darwinian mechanism of natural
selection and random variation is not in fact fully capable of generating
specified complexity. More recently, in No Free Lunch, I show that
undirected natural processes like the Darwinian mechanism are incapable
of generating the specified complexity that exists in biological organisms.
It follows that chance and necessity are insufficient for the natural
sciences and that the natural sciences need to leave room for design.
author bio author-recommended links

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Undirected
natural processes
are incapable of
generating the
specified
complexity in
organisms.

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alogos Posted - 01/03/2003 : 23:18:20
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll get back to you Phd,but check this out
quote:
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Purpose of the Prize

How does nature's genetic programming achieve such long sequences of highly functional decision-node
selections?

By what mechanism does biological nature set its algorithmic switch settings?

How do so many biochemical pathways get integrated into one coherent, unified, and sophisticated metabolic
process?

"The Origin-of-Life Prize" ® is being offered to stimulate research into chaos, complexity, information,
probability, self-organization, and artificial life/intelligence theories as they relate directly to biochemical and
molecular biological reality. The Foundation wishes to encourage the pursuit of natural-process explanations and
mechanisms of initial "gene" emergence within nature. The subject of interest is the genesis of primordial
functional information itself rather than its physico-chemical matrix of retention and transmission. Bioinformation
fits into the category of "prescriptive information" ("instruction," rather than mere probabilistic combinatorics
[Abel, 2000, 2002]). By what mechanisms do stochastic ensembles acquire instructive/integrative potential? In
other words, what are the processes whereby random biopolymeric sequences self-organize into indirect,
functional code?

Central questions of interest relate to the definition and nature of "genetic instructions" and "biomessage." Is
genetic recipe adequately represented and described by "mutual entropy" (shared, correlative uncertainty
between transmitter and receiver)? At what point and by what processes do "biofunction" and "biosystem" enter
into the chemical evolution of bioinformation?

What is a reasonable, empirically-accountable definition of "minimal life"?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.us.net/life/
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Origin-of-Life Prize ®



Last updated January, 2003

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Tree of Life Turns Out to Have Complex Roots. New York Times, April 1998:The longstanding road map for finding the universal ancestor, however, turns out in the light of new data to have given misleading directions,[I guess its a little more complex than riptor made it out to be] and the road map's chief author, Dr. Carl Woese of the University of Illinois, is proposing a new theory about the earliest life forms.

Working back to the ancestor, an exercise based on the sequence of DNA letters in genes, resembles the way that linguists reconstruct the words of vanished mother-tongues from their living descendant languages. [analogical reasoning and just as we recognize "Intelligence"behind human languages so should we recognize Itelligence in these languages]
Genes that perform the same role in human cells and in bacterial cells, say, may have a recognizably similar spelling of their DNA letters, reflecting the genes' descent from a common ancestor. In one such gene the human-bacterium similarity is as high as 45 percent....

"Five years ago we were very confident and arrogant in our ignorance," said Dr. Eugene Koonin of the National Center for

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Originally posted by darwin alogos
Working back to the ancestor, an exercise based on the sequence of DNA letters in genes, resembles the way that linguists reconstruct the words of vanished mother-tongues from their living descendant languages. [analogical reasoning and just as we recognize "Intelligence"behind human languages so should we recognize Itelligence in these languages]

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I am not quite sure I understand what you are trying to say here. The consens among scientist concerning the origin of different languages is that they evolved naturally, not that they are artificially designed. We can trace languanges back to their roots, can find common ancestors and can even see new ones evolving

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