Rough draft: Perhaps the higher level is underdetermined and acts in a manner that is, from the perspective of the lawfulness of the lower level, indeterminate in a manner analogous to how the digits in pi seem undetermined to one who is unaware of what they represent. But at the higher level, they act in a manner that is determined, albeit in a manner that is conditioned by circumstances. And these determinations are best understood in terms of seeking a kind of equilibrium/goal. The highest level would be that of a rational being that apprehends the good as such, and is, in virtue of its determination to seek this goal, undetermined...free.
Integral to Dembski's idea of specified complexity (SC) is the notion that something extrinsic to evolution is the source of the specification in how it develops. He compares SC to the message sent by space aliens in the movie "Contact." In that movie, earthbound scientists determine that radio waves originating in from somewhere in our galaxy are actually a signal being sent by space aliens. The scientists determine that these waves are a signal is the fact that they indicate prime numbers in a way that a random occurrence would not. What is interesting to me is the fact that Dembski relies upon an analogy with a sign rather than a machine. Like a machine, signs are produced by an intelligent being for the sake of something beyond themselves. Machines, if you will, have a meaning. Signs, if you will, produce knowledge. But the meaning/knowledge is in both cases something other than the machine/sign itself. Both signs and machines are purposeful or teleological...
Comments