Saturday, December 3, 2011, 8:43:47 PM, Gavin wrote: > I was reading Richard Dawkins book “the greatest show on earth” and > almost fell over backwards when I read his comments about life and > information. He says the only difference between living matter and > non living matter is information. That would be the most conjectural > statement I have ever read. There is not one scrap of evidence or > test or mathematical model to prove this statement.
Don't you find it strange to think that such a successful and prominent scientist, recipient of many honourary doctorates and other awards* and former Professor of the Public Understanding of Science, would take such a position? Is it not much more probable, a much more conservative hypothesis, that Dawkins means something different by "information" than you do? I'd suggest that, if people want to promote information science, Dawkins is someone they should be following. He's probably done more for public recognition of the place of information in science than anyone else has or is likely to do in the near future. Though Stephen Hawking, with his work on the black hole information paradox, should not be neglected. (I wrote to Dawkins in the early nineties suggesting that life could be defined as the survival of information. I'd love to say that he got the idea from me, but in fact he replied saying that it was true, but obvious! I have the handwritten letter (actually my own letter returned with his notes in the margin) carefully stored because I think some day it might be valuable!) * See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins#Awards_and_recognition -- Robin Faichney <http://www.robinfaichney.org/> _______________________________________________ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
