Evolutionary Informatics Lab
Encyclopedia
The Evolutionary Informatics Lab is a cyberspace
Cyberspace
Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place.The term "cyberspace" was first used by the cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson, though the concept was described somewhat earlier, for example in the Vernor Vinge short story "True...

 entity created in 2007 by Baylor University
Baylor University
Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...

 professor Robert J. Marks II
Robert J. Marks II
Robert Jackson Marks II is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University and proponent of intelligent design. From 1977 to 2003, he was on the faculty of the University of Washington in Seattle...

 conducting research on mathematical details of evolutionary computation
Evolutionary computation
In computer science, evolutionary computation is a subfield of artificial intelligence that involves combinatorial optimization problems....

 and purported to underlie intelligent design It defines evolutionary informatics
Evolutionary informatics
Evolutionary informatics is a subfield of informatics addressing the practice of information processing in, and the engineering of information systems for, the study of biological evolution, as well as the study of information in evolutionary systems, natural and artificial.-Information processing...

 and serves as a showcase for those researchers' writings.

Marks first created a website for the lab on a Baylor server. Controversy ensued when the University deleted the site for linking the University to private research. Baylor's action is represented as persecution of ID advocates in a 2008 documentary film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a 2008 documentary film, directed by Nathan Frankowski and hosted by Ben Stein. The film contends that the mainstream science establishment suppresses academics who believe they see evidence of intelligent design in nature and who criticize evidence supporting...

. The site now resides on a third-party server.

History of the website

In June 2007, Marks created a website for the lab on a server owned by Baylor University. The university deleted the site in July of that year. The site now resides on a third-party server.

The declared purpose of the Evolutionary Informatics Lab is as follows.
"Evolutionary informatics merges theories of evolution and information, thereby wedding the natural, engineering, and mathematical sciences. Evolutionary informatics studies how evolving systems incorporate, transform, and export information. The Evolutionary Informatics Laboratory explores the conceptual foundations, mathematical development, and empirical application of evolutionary informatics. The principal theme of the lab’s research is teasing apart the respective roles of internally generated and externally applied information in the performance of evolutionary systems."

Affiliates

As of May 1, 2010, The Evolutionary Informatics Lab involves the following senior researchers:
  • William F. Basener, Professor of Mathematics at Rochester Institute of Technology
    Rochester Institute of Technology
    The Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...

    ,
  • William A. Dembski
    William A. Dembski
    William Albert "Bill" Dembski is an American proponent of intelligent design, well known for promoting the concept of specified complexity...

    , an intelligent design advocate,
  • Gil Dodgen, a contributor on Dembski's Uncommon Descent blog,
  • Norm C. Griswold, Emeritus Halliburton Professor of Electrical Engineering (retired) and former Department Chair at Texas A&M University
    Texas A&M University
    Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...

    ,
  • Granville Sewell
    Granville Sewell
    Edward Granville Sewell is an American mathematician, university professor, and intelligent design advocate. He is currently a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas, El Paso.-Education:...

    , Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas at El Paso
    University of Texas at El Paso
    The University of Texas at El Paso is a four-year state university, and is a component institution of the University of Texas System. Its campus is located on the bank of the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas. The school was founded in 1914 as The Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy,...

    ,
  • Robert J. Marks II
    Robert J. Marks II
    Robert Jackson Marks II is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University and proponent of intelligent design. From 1977 to 2003, he was on the faculty of the University of Washington in Seattle...

    , Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University
    Baylor University
    Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...

    , and
  • Donald C. Wunsch II, Mary K. Finley Missouri Distinguished Professor of Computer Engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology
    Missouri University of Science and Technology
    Missouri University of Science and Technology is an institution of higher learning located in Rolla, Missouri, United States, and part of the University of Missouri System...

    .


Basener, Dembski, Marks, and Sewell are signatories of the pro-ID Discovery Institute
Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...

's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism
A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism
A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism is a statement issued in 2001 by the Discovery Institute, a conservative non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, USA, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design.The statement expresses skepticism about the ability of random...

.

Baylor's removal of the website

Marks did not seek permission from Baylor University to form the lab, but created a website for it on a server owned by the university. The website was deleted when Baylor's administration determined that it violated university policy forbidding professors from creating the impression that their personal views represent Baylor as an institution. Baylor said they would permit Marks to repost his website on their server, provided a disclaimer accompany any intelligent design-advancing research to make clear that the work does not represent the university's position. The site now resides on a third-party server and still contains the material advancing intelligent design.

After removing the site, the Baylor administration stated that it contained "unapproved research" and that university policy forbids professors from creating the impression that their personal views represent Baylor as an institution. Baylor has said that it will permit Marks to repost his website on its server, provided he (1) delete any reference to a "Lab," (2) delete listing of any Baylor graduate students, and (3) post at the bottom of every page and the top of the home page a 108-word disclaimer. Marks offered to include instead a brief disclaimer advocated by the American Association of University Professors
American Association of University Professors
The American Association of University Professors is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States. AAUP membership is about 47,000, with over 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations...

, but Baylor administrators did not find this acceptable.

Dembski, Marks, and Baylor

William Dembski had been employed by Baylor twice prior to the establishment of the lab, and the website made available technical papers coauthored by him and Marks. Dembski was embroiled in controversy in 2000 as the director of Baylor's short-lived Michael Polanyi Center
Michael Polanyi Center
The Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University was the first center at a research university exclusively dedicated to intelligent design study. It was founded in 1999 "with the primary aim of advancing the...

, which promoted intelligent design. In 2006, Dembski was briefly employed by Marks as a research assistant
Research assistant
A research assistant is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university or a research institute, for the purpose of assisting in academic research...

, despite the fact that he was a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. That stint as a Baylor employee came to an end when the university rejected the $30,000 grant from the Lifeworks Foundation that provided his salary. In a well sourced article at "The Panda's Thumb," a weblog opposing intelligent design, Andrea Bottaro links the Lifeworks Foundation to the Discovery Institute
Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...

, a think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...

 advocating intelligent design.

"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" coverage

Baylor's removal of the website is addressed in the 2008 film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a 2008 documentary film, directed by Nathan Frankowski and hosted by Ben Stein. The film contends that the mainstream science establishment suppresses academics who believe they see evidence of intelligent design in nature and who criticize evidence supporting...

. The main thesis of the film is that academia and the scientific establishment discriminate against intelligent design advocates. It includes interview footage with Marks and Dembski.

Technical Papers

As of December 2009, the lab's website offers three peer reviewed papers by Dembski, Marks, and Winston Ewert. The papers emphasize the concept of active information in the context of search
Search algorithm
In computer science, a search algorithm is an algorithm for finding an item with specified properties among a collection of items. The items may be stored individually as records in a database; or may be elements of a search space defined by a mathematical formula or procedure, such as the roots...

 for solutions to problems. The notion is developed fully in "Conservation of Information in Search: Measuring the Cost of Success."
.

A second paper,"Evolutionary Synthesis of Nand Logic: Dissecting a Digital Organism,
is an analysis of the evolution simulation Avida
Avida
Avida is an artificial life software platform to study the evolutionary biology of self-replicating and evolving computer programs . Avida is under active development by Charles Ofria's Digital Evolution Lab at Michigan State University and was originally designed by Ofria, Chris Adami and C. Titus...

 and purports to uncover the sources of active information in the program. A third paper is a preamble of the "Cost of Success" paper.

See also

  • Baylor University
    Baylor University
    Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...

  • William A. Dembski
    William A. Dembski
    William Albert "Bill" Dembski is an American proponent of intelligent design, well known for promoting the concept of specified complexity...

  • Robert J. Marks II
    Robert J. Marks II
    Robert Jackson Marks II is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University and proponent of intelligent design. From 1977 to 2003, he was on the faculty of the University of Washington in Seattle...

  • Granville Sewell
    Granville Sewell
    Edward Granville Sewell is an American mathematician, university professor, and intelligent design advocate. He is currently a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas, El Paso.-Education:...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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