Posts Tagged ‘design’

Artificial Intelligence and the Eye

Sunday, July 12th, 2009

The marvellous human eye.

The marvelous human eye.

Artificial means something created by human art rather than occurring in nature. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a computer program designed by humans to handle problems creatively, that is in the manner that the higher animals or humans would handle them.

An enormous amount of brainwork goes into successful AI developments. And the most efficient solutions generally come from the study of nature. For example, Boston College researchers Hao Jiang and Stella X. Yu recently revealed an improved method for getting computers to recognize moving objects.

Not surprisingly, their method more closely imitates the working of the human eye and brain than previous methods had.

When the most intelligent minds in our labs find it necessary to model their hardware and program designs on nature’s designs (and still can only roughly approximate nature’s successful designs), one is compelled to consider the overwhelming likelihood that nature itself has an intelligent designer of far superior ability.

Designer Junk

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

RNA excerpt. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

RNA excerpt. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

If life arose by chance, one would expect to find lots of “mistakes” in organisms— vestigal organs and junk DNA, for example. Prominent atheists have made just this case.

However, greater knowledge of the cell’s workings has shown that much that was once considered junk DNA is absolutely essential to the function of the cell. Such was the case with microRNAs, short snippets of RNA that not long ago were thought to be garbage, but recently found to regulate genes.

Now this “junk” holds out the long-term prospect of cancer treatment. Just a few weeks ago Johns Hopkins researchers published a paper showing that microRNAs are set into production by cell density, although somehow this function breaks down in cancers. The hope is that research will show how to repair, restore or replicate the crucial function of microRNAs in the fight against cancers.

The more that so-called junk DNA and RNA are found to be intricately involved in cell function and regulation, the weaker the atheist argument grows and the stronger the case for a designer becomes.

Tie a Knot Blindfolded

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

A lot goes into tying a knot behind one's back.

A lot goes into tying a knot behind one's back.

A few weeks back my wife was modeling a new outfit she had bought. As she slipped on its vest, I realized it had belt-like strips that had to be tied behind. I expected her to turn to me and ask me to tie them for her, but instead, she reached back and, without being able to see what she was doing, knotted the strings herself.

That incident, seemingly so insignificant, struck me forcibly. What incredible abilities we have! Think of all the bones and muscles, nerves and mental imagery that have to coordinate together flawlessly to make possible the feat of tying a shoestring knot behind your back.

Am I supposed to believe this came about by chance? It took enormous ingenuity to devise a system to tie baling string in a combine. Can I believe that the ability of my wife to tie a bow behind her back was any less the product of a master designer?