From Complexity to Life On The Emergence of Life and Meaning

by Gregersen, Niels Henrik

• ISBN13: 9780195150704
• ISBN10: 0195150708
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-11-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book brings together an impressive group of leading scholars in the sciences of complexity, and a few workers on the interface of science and religion, to explore the wider implications of complexity studies. It includes an introduction to complexity studies and explores the concept ofinformation in physics and biology and various philosophical and religious perspectives. Chapter authors include Paul Davies, Greg Chaitin, Charles Bennett, Werner Loewenstein, Paul Dembski, Ian Stewart, Stuart Kauffman, Harold Morowitz, Arthur Peacocke, and Niels H. Gregersen.

Author Biography

Charles H. Bennet is senior scientist at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York Gregory J. Chaitin is at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, and is also an honorary professor at the University of Buenos Aires and a visiting professor at the University of Auckland Paul Davies has held chairs at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, and at the University of Adelaide, Australia, and is currently visiting professor at Imperial College, London William A. Dembski is associate professor in conceptual foundations of science at Baylor University, Texas, and a fellow at the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute in Seattle Niels Henrik Gregersen is a research professor in theology and science at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and President of the Learned Society in Denmark Stuart A. Kauffman is a founding member of the Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico, and a founding general partner of the BiosGroup LP Werner R. Loewenstein is the director of the Laboratory of Cell Communication in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and a professor and chairman emeritus of physiology and biophysics at the University of Miami Harold J. Morowitz is the Clarence Robinson Professor of Biology and Natural Philosophy at George Mason University and professor emeritus of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University Arthur Peacocke worked in the field of physical biochemistry for more than 25 years. He was the founding director of the Ian Ramsey Centre at Oxford University, which he directed until recently Ian Stewart is director of the Mathematics Awareness Centre at Warwick University, professor of mathematics at Warwick, and a fellow of the Royal Society

Table of Contents

Contributors	ix
Introduction: Toward an Emergentist Worldview	3	(16)
Paul Davies
PART I DEFINING COMPLEXITY
Randomness and Mathematical Proof	19	(15)
Gregory J. Chaitin
How to Define Complexity in Physics, and Why	34	(13)
Charles H. Bennett
PART II THE CONCEPT OF INFORMATION IN PHYSICS AND BIOLOGY
The Emergence of Autonomous Agents	47	(25)
Stuart Kauffman
Complexity and the Arrow of Time	72	(21)
Paul Davies
Can Evolutionary Algorithms Generate Specified Complexity?	93	(21)
William A. Dembski
The Second Law of Gravitics and the Fourth Law of Thermodynamics	114	(37)
Ian Stewart
Two Arrows from a Mighty Bow	151	(26)
Werner R. Loewenstein
PART III PHILOSOPHICAL AND RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES
Emergence of Transcendence	177	(10)
Harold J. Morowitz
Complexity, Emergence, and Divine Creativity	187	(19)
Arthur Peacocke
From Anthropic Design to Self-Organized Complexity	206	(29)
Niels Henrik Gregersen
Index	235