THis is a repost from this thread:
In sum, information needs an intelligence to create it. - Pretty interesting stuff to think about - but that’s metaphysical, too! Haha....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3117912/posts
“Although Spetner says information could be in principle created or increased, Dr Werner Gitt, retired Director and Professor at the German Federal Institute of Physics and Technology, denies this:
“Theorem 23: There is no known natural law through which matter can give rise to information, neither is any physical process or material phenomenon known that can do this.”31
In his latest book, Gitt refines and explains his conclusions from a lifetime of research on information and its inseparable reliance on an intelligent source.32 There are various manifestations of information: for example, the spider’s web; the diffraction pattern of butterfly wings; development of embryos; and an organ-playing robot.33 He introduces the term ‘Universal Information’34 to minimize confusion with other usages of the word information:
“Universal Information (UI) is a symbolically encoded, abstractly represented message conveying the expected actions(s) and the intended purposes(s). In this context, ‘message’ is meant to include instructions for carrying out a specific task or eliciting a specific response [emphasis added].”35
Information must be encoded on a series of symbols which satisfy three Necessary Conditions (NC). These are conclusions, based on observation.
NC1: A set of abstract symbols is required.
NC2: The sequence of abstract symbols must be irregular.
NC3: The symbols must be presented in a recognizable form, such as rows, columns, circles, spirals and so on.
Gitt also concludes that UI is embedded in a five-level hierarchy with each level building upon the lower one:
statistics (signal, number of symbols)
cosyntics (set of symbols, grammar)
semantics (meaning)
pragmatics (action)
apobetics (purpose, result).
Gitt believes information is guided by immutable Scientific Laws of Information (SLIs).36,37 Unless shown to be wrong, they deny a naturalist origin for information, and they are:38
SLI-1: Information is a non-material entity.
SLI-2: A material entity cannot create a non-material entity.
SLI-3: UI cannot be created by purely random processes.
SLI-4: UI can only be created by an intelligent sender.
SLI-4a: A code system requires an intelligent sender.
SLI-4b: No new UI without an intelligent sender.
SLI-4c: All senders that create UI have a non-material component.
SLI-4d: Every UI transmission chain can be traced back to an original intelligent sender
SLI-4e: Allocating meanings to, and determining meanings from, sequences of symbols are intellectual processes.
SLI-5: The pragmatic attribute of UI requires a machine.
SLI-5a: UI and creative power are required for the design and construction of all machines.
SLI-5b: A functioning machine means that UI is affecting the material domain.
SLI-5c: Machines operate exclusively within the physical– chemical laws of matter.
SLI-5d: Machines cause matter to function in specific ways.
SLI-6: Existing UI is never increased over time by purely physical, chemical processes.”
Metaphysics is a traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it, although the term is not easily defined. Wikipedia
Metaphysics is not science. It’s not derived through the scientific method. Metaphysics cannot tell me how or when the San Andreas fault formed or why it formed where it did. While the scientific method is an artificial construct and there is a philosophy of science, by itself, it doesn’t determine results but gives structure to how the results are structured, arrived at and validated. Frankly, metaphysics doesn’t interest me.