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

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 432 pages
• Published by: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. February 28, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 074255810X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0742558106
• Book Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Weighs: 1.4 pounds

Product Description
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. 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. Updated with a new Preface by the author.

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. Dr. Dembski has published articles in mathematics, philosophy, and theology journals and is the author of seven books. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence (Hardcover) No Free Lunch, the sequel to mathematician and philosopher William Dembski's Cambridge University Press book The Design Inference, explores key questions about the origin of specified complexity. Dembski explains that the Darwinian search mechanism of random mutation coupled with natural selection is incapable of generating novel complex, specified information (CSI). This observation translates into "No Free Lunch" (NFL) theorems, which Dembski explains are inherent constraints upon natural systems. Natural Darwinian mechanisms can shuffle this information around, but only intelligence can generate novel CSI. In other words, when it comes to generating truly novel biological complexity, Darwin can have no free lunch. Some critics have asserted that he has never applied his model for detecting design to any real biological systems. The latter half of this book debunks this fallacious objection, and provides a detailed calculation of the CSI found in the bacterial flagellum. Dembski assesses the complexity of the flagellum on various levels, including its protein parts and its assembly instructions, finding that the amount of CSI contained in the flagellum vastly outweigh the probabilistic resources available in the history of the universe to construct such a structure, absent intelligent design. No Free Lunch demonstrates that design theory shows great promise of providing insight in the field of evolutionary computation. If Dembski is right, then the ability of genetic algorithms to solve complex problems is a function of the amount of intelligent design inputted by their programmers.