pandion writes:
But biological information is not subject to the rules of communication theory.
Sure it is. At heart communication theory is just thermodynamics.
As far as Shannon information is concerned, any change is a loss of information, i.e., the message sent is not the message received.
This is only true for that portion of communication involving the sending of a message. Creating your message set is also part of communication theory, and in biology where received messages become part of the message set mutations have a tendency to expand the message set, i.e., increase the amount of information that can be communicated.
The easiest way to see this is to consider the example of a population with a certain gene that possesses 3 alleles. The amount of information about this gene that can be communicated to the offspring during reproduction is log
2 3 = 1.58 bits. If an individual in this population experiences a mutation in this gene that creates a unique new allele, then this gene now possesses 4 alleles, and the amount of information communicated during reproduction is log
2 4 = 2 bits.
It is another case of an unreasonable creationist demanding the biologists use his definition of information by using a definition that no one but creationists use.
Yes, this is the real problem.
--Percy
™ Version 4.2
