The Scott Adams Intelligent Universe Controversy
By Daniel Miessler on February 8th, 2007: Tagged as Intelligence | Philosophy | Religion
For those who aren’t aware, Scott Adams of Dilbert fame has a blog. It’s quite good. He has consistently strong content, and one of his favorite things to do is approach common questions differently.
His latest idea has been that the universe is intelligent because we, as intelligent people, were created by it. This simple idea has created something of a controversy, with big name scientists getting involved and such.
Anyway, here’s my response to one of his key paragraphs in his latest post. Scott says,
So, does the universe have the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge? Clearly it does, because the big bang caused evolution (say the scientists), which led to creatures with brains, and those creatures acquire and apply knowledge while remaining part of the universe.
…and my response…
I admittedly haven’t thought this through all the way, Scott, but I believe you are making a grave mistake here by linking the randomness of the big bang with the organized life (and intelligence) that came from it.
Ah, I think I found it. You used the word “caused”. You said, “the big bang caused evolution (say the scientists)…”, and that word leans heavily toward thought and design.
I think when you choose a more precise wording, say, “resulted in”, you end up with a more accurate picture. This picture shows that randomness and time are the guiding forces, and that all ordered things that result from it “just happened”.
They weren’t “caused”. They aren’t linked to the big bang in any way other than to say that the big bang must have happened for them to take place. And certainly not in the direct way that you speak of — where the randomness of the universe “gathers and applies knowledge” because something in it does.
A simpler way to refute this would be to ask where this information that’s being learned is being stored. Humans store information. Chimps do. Dolphins do. So when they’re gathering and applying information, they’re using it for something.
Where is the universe’s counterpart for the sensory organs (to acquire with)? The brain (to store and apply)? There aren’t any. The universe is a collection of randomness — a bunch of energy floating around in various forms bumping into itself.
Some of that nothing ends up forming (against great odds) into organized structures and beginning an evolution process, but that fact does NOT mean that the nothingness somehow takes on their attributes.
