Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference—Chapter Three on the true cost of a successful search—Conservation of information

To facilitate discussion, we are publishing the abstracts of the 24 papers from the Cornell Conference on the Origin of Biological Information here at Uncommon Descent, with cumulative links to previous papers at the bottom of each page.

Following up on Chapter Three (Dembski, Ewert, and Marks on the true cost of a successful search), here is the Conservation of Information theorem:

Conservation of information tracks the information that goes into constructing a search, showing that the amount of information exhibited by the search in locating a target can never exceed the amount of information inputted in its construction. Accordingly, conservation of information addresses not just the search for a given target in the original search space, but also a search for the information that goes into rendering such a search successful. Conservation of information therefore is not about search per se but about the search for a search. In other words, it is about a higher-level search for the information required to render a lower-level search successful.

This, of course, means that many claims about what Darwin’s mechanism of evolution (natural selection acting on random mutations, a form of search) can do are: appeals to fairy dust. Thoughts?

Note: All conference papers here.

See also: Origin of Biological Information conference: Its goals

Open Mike: Origin of Biological Information conference: Origin of life studies flatlined

Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference— Can you answer these conundrums about information?

Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference—Is a new definition of information needed for biology? (Chapter 2)

Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference—New definition of information proposed: Universal Information (Chapter 2)

Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference—Chapter Three, Dembski, Ewert, and Marks on the true cost of a successful search