Specified complexity: Difference between revisions

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{{Intelligent Design}}

'''Specified complexity''' is a complex and detailed <s>creationist</s> argument introduced by [[William Dembski]], usedthat byis advocatesmeant to promote the idea and mechanisms behind [[pseudoscience|<s>pseudoscience</s>]] of [[intelligent design]]. According to Dembski, the concept can formalize a property that singles out patterns that are both ''specified'' and ''complex'', where in Dembski's terminology, a ''specified'' pattern is one that admits short descriptions, whereas a ''complex'' pattern is one that is unlikely to occur by chance. Proponents of intelligent design use specified complexity as one of their two main arguments, alongside [[irreducible complexity]].

Dembski argues that it is impossible for specified complexity to exist in patterns displayed by configurations formed by unguided processes. Therefore, Dembski argues, the fact that specified complex patterns can be found in living things indicates some kind of guidance in their formation, which is indicative of intelligence. Dembski further argues that one can rigorously show by applying [[No free lunch in search and optimization|no-free-lunch theorems]] the inability of evolutionary algorithms to select or generate configurations of high specified complexity. Dembski states that specified complexity is a reliable marker of design by an [[intelligent designer|intelligent agent]]—a central tenet to intelligent design, which Dembski argues for inas oppositiona toneeded augmentation of [[evolution|modern evolutionary theory]]. Specified complexity is what Dembski terms an "explanatory filter": one can recognize design by detecting "complex specified information" (CSI). Dembski argues that the unguided emergence of CSI solely according to known [[physical laws]] and chance is highly improbable.<ref>Olofsson, P., "Intelligent design and mathematical statistics: a troubled alliance", ''Biology and Philosophy'', (2008) 23: 545. {{doi|10.1007/s10539-007-9078-6}} ([https://web.archive.org/web/20180120070714/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8def/d6c4582d252e55d8b4a188ccdb9bff6453c3.pdf pdf], retrieved December 18, 2017)</ref>

The concept of specified complexity, isin widelysome circles, is regarded as mathematically unsound and hasis not beenyet the basis for further independent work in [[information theory]], in the theory of [[complex systems]], or in [[biology]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/information/dembski.html |title=Information Theory and Creationism: William Dembski |author=Rich Baldwin |year=2005 |publisher=[[TalkOrigins Archive]] |access-date=2010-05-10}}</ref><ref>Mark Perakh, (2005). ''[http://www.talkreason.org/articles/newmath.cfm Dembski "displaces Darwinism" mathematically -- or does he?]''</ref><ref>Jason Rosenhouse, (2001). ''[http://educ.jmu.edu/~rosenhjd/sewell.pdf How Anti-Evolutionists Abuse Mathematics]'' The Mathematical Intelligencer, Vol. 23, No. 4, Fall 2001, pp. 3–8.</ref> AIn studya bynegative review, [[Wesley R. Elsberry|Wesley Elsberry]] and [[Jeffrey Shallit]] statesstate: "Dembski's work is riddled with inconsistencies, equivocation, flawed use of mathematics, poor scholarship, and misrepresentation of others' results."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.talkreason.org/articles/eandsdembski.pdf|last1=Elsberry|first1=Wesley|last2=Shallit|first2=Jeffrey|year=2003|title=Information Theory, Evolutionary Computation, and Dembski's 'Complex Specified Information|access-date=20 October 2017}}</ref> Another objection concerns Dembski's calculation of probabilities. According to [[Martin Nowak]], a Harvard professor of mathematics and evolutionary biology, "We cannot calculate the probability that an eye came about. We don't have the information to make the calculation."<ref name="time.com">

Wallis, Claudia (2005). [http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1090909,00.html Time Magazine], printed 15 August 2005, page 32

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