Evolutionary Informatics lab

Steve_F · September 14, 2007, 01:32 PM

There's been a bit of a kerfuffle recently about the Evolutionary Informatics lab (actually, its just a webpage not a lab) and Dembski's relationship with Bayolr. Here are some links for people's interest:

http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/...or_s.html#more

http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/..._the_mone.html

http://austringer.net/wp/index.php/2...-gets-weirder/

Dembski has made the following arrogant boast:

Quote:

Here’s a fun interview with my friend and colleague Robert Marks. I hope you catch from the interview the ambitiousness of the lab and how it promises to put people like Christoph Adami and Rob Pennock out of business

It's quite an interesting tale. I do have one small question (which I suspect RBH will be able to answer); one of the members of the "lab" is Thomas English. I was under the impression that this chap was a critic of Dembski's ideas (for example see discussion in this thread). Assuming it to be the same person, does this mean he is now an IDist or more happily that the Evolutionary Informatics "lab" isn't simply a bit of ID propoganda? That there might vaguely be some actual serious work done with regards to ID?

ck1 · September 14, 2007, 01:51 PM

Wow - that is arrogant.

There are 3 papers from Marks' organization listed as under review. Abstracts are provided - do they look promising to people in this field?

deadman_932 · September 14, 2007, 02:49 PM

ck1: Not just the abstracts -- drafts are available, which I'll be looking over this weekend. The third one is particularly interesting to me, since it takes on Tom Schneider (http://www.lecb.ncifcrf.gov/~toms/ ) on biological information theory and the use of the algorithm Ev to generate info :

William A. Dembski and Robert J. Marks II. "Conservation of Information in Search: Measuring the Cost of Success" http://cayman.globat.com/~trademarks...ActiveInfo.pdf

William A. Dembski and Robert J. Marks II. "Active Information in Evolutionary Search" http://cayman.globat.com/~trademarksnet.com/T/Hag2.pdf

William A. Dembski and Robert J. Marks II. "Unacknowledged Information Costs in Evolutionary Computing: A Case Study on the Evolution of Nucleotide Binding Sites" http://cayman.globat.com/~trademarksnet.com/T/ev2.pdf

**RBH** · September 14, 2007, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve_F

It's quite an interesting tale. I do have one small question (which I suspect RBH will be able to answer); one of the members of the "lab" is Thomas English. I was under the impression that this chap was a critic of Dembski's ideas (for example see discussion in this thread). Assuming it to be the same person, does this mean he is now an IDist or more happily that the Evolutionary Informatics "lab" isn't simply a bit of ID propoganda? That there might vaguely be some actual serious work done with regards to ID?

I haven't had any contact with English for a couple of years. He's not an IDist, AFAIK, but he is an iconoclast. Marks is not a dumb guy, and maybe English (assuming it's the same one, though the affiliation is right, AFAIK) hooked up with Marks to do some genuine work. I dunno.

As I remember, English was not listed in the original lab personnel, though I might be mistaken. I think I would have noticed his name. Years ago English had some interaction with Dembski on ISCID, I think.

RBH

VoxRat · September 14, 2007, 03:07 PM

I think I'll wait till any of these manuscripts passes the peer-review system of a respectable journal before (potentially) wasting time on the thoughts of someone I consider to have demonstrated real deficits in both logic and scholarship. (I mean WAD. I don't know anything about this Marks guy; but association with WAD is a very bad advertisement, as far as I'm concerned).

September 14, 2007, 02:49 PM	#4783271 / #3
deadman_932 Veteran User Join Date: June 2007 Location: Altadena, California Posts: 847	ck1: Not just the abstracts -- drafts are available, which I'll be looking over this weekend. The third one is particularly interesting to me, since it takes on Tom Schneider (http://www.lecb.ncifcrf.gov/~toms/ ) on biological information theory and the use of the algorithm Ev to generate info : William A. Dembski and Robert J. Marks II. "Conservation of Information in Search: Measuring the Cost of Success" http://cayman.globat.com/~trademarks...ActiveInfo.pdf William A. Dembski and Robert J. Marks II. "Active Information in Evolutionary Search" http://cayman.globat.com/~trademarksnet.com/T/Hag2.pdf William A. Dembski and Robert J. Marks II. "Unacknowledged Information Costs in Evolutionary Computing: A Case Study on the Evolution of Nucleotide Binding Sites" http://cayman.globat.com/~trademarksnet.com/T/ev2.pdf Last edited by deadman_932 : September 14, 2007 at 03:11 PM.

September 14, 2007, 01:51 PM	#4783169 / #2
ck1 Veteran User Join Date: June 2007 Location: US East Coast Posts: 532	Wow - that is arrogant. There are 3 papers from Marks' organization listed as under review. Abstracts are provided - do they look promising to people in this field?

September 14, 2007, 03:07 PM	#4783300 / #5
VoxRat Veteran User Join Date: June 2007 Location: New Jersey Posts: 549	I think I'll wait till any of these manuscripts passes the peer-review system of a respectable journal before (potentially) wasting time on the thoughts of someone I consider to have demonstrated real deficits in both logic and scholarship. (I mean WAD. I don't know anything about this Marks guy; but association with WAD is a very bad advertisement, as far as I'm concerned).