Evolutionary Informatics Lab

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The Evolutionary Informatics Lab is a cyberspace entity created in 2007 by Baylor University professor Robert J. Marks II conducting research on mathematical details purported to underly intelligent design[1] It defines evolutionary informatics and serves as a clearinghouse for those researchers' writings. It lists involved researchers as prominent intelligent design (ID) advocates William Dembski and Granville Sewell, Gil Dodgen (a contributor on Dembski's Uncommon Descent blog[2]), William F. Basener and Marks himself.[3] All except Dodgen (who lacks a PhD[3]) are signatories of the pro-ID Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism.[4]

Marks first created a website for the lab on a Baylor server. Controversy ensued when the University deleted the site for linking the University to private research. Baylor's action is represented as persecution of ID advocates in a 2008 documentary film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The site now resides on a third-party server.

Contents

[edit] History of the website

In June 2007,[5] Marks created a website for the lab on a server owned by Baylor University. The university deleted the site in July of that year.[6][7] The site now resides on a third-party server.[8]

The declared purpose of the Evolutionary Informatics Lab is:

"Evolutionary informatics merges theories of evolution and information, thereby wedding the natural, engineering, and mathematical sciences. Evolutionary informatics studies how evolving systems incorporate, transform, and export information. The Evolutionary Informatics Laboratory explores the conceptual foundations, mathematical development, and empirical application of evolutionary informatics. The principal theme of the lab’s research is teasing apart the respective roles of internally generated and externally applied information in the performance of evolutionary systems."

[edit] Affiliates

As of April 2008, five individuals, including Marks, are listed. William A. Dembski, a leading figure in the intelligent design movement, and presently employed as research professor in philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Gil Dodgen, a software engineer working in industry, and Granville Sewell, a professor of mathematics at the University of Texas - El Paso, are among the "friends" who have advocated intelligent design in articles at "Uncommon Descent: The Intelligent Design Weblog of William Dembski, Denyse O'Leary, and Friends."[9][10] William F. Basener is an associate professor of mathematics at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Marks holds the rank of Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor, and is an overt creationist.[11]

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Baylor's removal of the website

Marks did not seek permission from Baylor University to form the lab, but created a website for it on a server owned by the university. After removing the site, the Baylor administration stated that it contained "unapproved research"[12] and that university policy forbids professors from creating the impression that their personal views represent Baylor as an institution.[13] Baylor has said that it will permit Marks to repost his website on its server, provided he (1) delete any reference to a "Lab," (2) delete listing of any Baylor graduate students, and (3) post at the bottom of every page and the top of the home page a 108-word disclaimer.[14][15][16] Marks offered to include instead a brief disclaimer advocated by the American Association of University Professors, but Baylor administrators did not find this acceptable.[17]

[edit] Dembski, Marks, and Baylor

See also: Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns

William Dembski had been employed by Baylor twice prior to the establishment of the lab, and that the website made available technical papers coauthored by him and Marks.[18] Dembski was embroiled in controversy in 2000 as the director of Baylor's short-lived Michael Polanyi Center, which promoted intelligent design. In 2006, Dembski was briefly employed by Marks as a research assistant, despite the fact that he was a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. That stint as a Baylor employee came to an end when the university rejected the $30,000 grant from the Lifeworks Foundation that provided his salary. In a well sourced article at "The Panda's Thumb," a weblog advocating evolutionary theory and opposing intelligent design, Andrea Bottaro links the Lifeworks Foundation to the Discovery Institute, a think tank advocating intelligent design.[19]

[edit] "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" coverage

Baylor's removal of the website is addressed in the 2008 film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.[20] The main thesis of the film is that academia and the scientific establishment discriminate against intelligent design advocates.[21] It includes interview footage with Marks and Dembski.[20]

[edit] Unpublished technical papers

As of April 2008, lab's website offers the full text of two unpublished papers, and the abstracts of two others, by Dembski and Marks. Both of of the papers, and one of the abstracts, emphasize the concept of active information in the context of search for solutions to problems. The notion is developed fully in "Conservation of Information in Search: Measuring the Cost of Success."[22]

The abstract for "Judicious Use of Computational Resources in Evolutionary Search" emphasizes "an oracle (or source of information)," and does not mention active information.[23] Dembski and Marks claim that the "Avida and ev algorithms are evaluated and shown to use oracles rich in information." But in "Conservation of Information in Search" they criticize research involving precisely those two algorithms (which simulate evolution) indicating that researchers have imbued them with active information, and that this accounts for positive results.[22] It is unclear whether Dembski and Marks are shifting emphasis from active information to oracles, or if the two approaches to analysis are complementary.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Most of these critics are responding to my book No Free Lunch. As I explained in the preface of that book, its aim was to provide enough technical details so that experts could fill in details, but enough exposition so that the general reader could grasp the essence of my project. The book seems to have succeeded with the general reader and with some experts, though mainly with those who were already well-disposed toward ID. In any case, it became clear after that publication of that book that I would need to fill in the mathematical details myself, something I have been doing right along (see my articles described under “mathematical foundations of intelligent design” at www.designinference.com) and which has now been taken up in earnest in a collaboration with my friend and Baylor colleague Robert Marks at his Evolutionary Informatics Lab (www.EvoInfo.org)." — An Interview with Dr. William A. Dembski (Updated)
  2. ^ Uncommon Descent: About
  3. ^ a b EIL: People
  4. ^ A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism
  5. ^ An Interview with Dr. William A. Dembski (Updated)
  6. ^ Web site sparks new intelligent design battle at BU, Waco Tribune-Herald
  7. ^ Baylor forces professor to shut down site, The Daily Orange
  8. ^ The Evolutionary Informatics Lab website
  9. ^ GilDodgen, "Bird brains, GN&C and ID," March 2, 2008 [1]
  10. ^ Granville Sewell, "Introducing Sewell's Law," May 22, 2007 [2]
  11. ^ Robert J. Marks II, "Genesis and Science: Compatibility Extraordinaire" (slide presentation) [3]
  12. ^ New intelligent design conflict hits BU, Claire St. Amant, Baylor Lariat, September 11, 2007
  13. ^ Baylor U. Removes a Web Page Associated With Intelligent Design From Its Site, Elizabeth F. Farrell,Chronicle of Higher Education, September 6, 2007.
  14. ^ WORLD Magazine | Today's News, Christian Views
  15. ^ Crisis averted, Mark Bergin, World Magazine
  16. ^ Baylor U. Removes a Web Page Associated With Intelligent Design From Its Site by Elizabeth F. Farrell. Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 4, 2007. onlinesubscription access
  17. ^ Erin Roach, "I.D. rift hits Baylor again", Baptist Press, Sep 5, 2007, [4]
  18. ^ Grace Maalouf and Brad Briggs "BU had role in Dembski return," Baylor Lariat, Nov. 16, 2007[5]
  19. ^ "Follow the money: more Dembski/Baylor-related mischief?" September 7, 2007 [6]
  20. ^ a b Jerry Pierce, "Baptist professors featured in new film," Southern Baptist Texan (January 28, 2008)
  21. ^ Lesley Burbridge-Bates (2007-08-22). Expelled Press Release. Premise Media. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  22. ^ a b William A. Dembski and Robert J. Marks II, "Conservation of information in search: measuring the cost of success" [7]
  23. ^ William A. Dembski and Robert J. Marks, "Judicious use of computational resources in search" (abstract only) [8]

[edit] External links