Information and the Origin of Life [Hardcover]

Bernd-Olaf Küppers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 1990 | ISBN-10: 026211142X | ISBN-13: 978-0262111423

The relationship between law and chance in the early evolution of life is the guiding theme of this provocative study. The author explores modern ideas about the origin of life from the standpoint of philosophy of science, emphasizing the contribution made by information theory.Küppers asserts that all life phenomena are steered by information and that this information is already defined materially in a universal form at the level of the biological macromolecule. The question of the origin of life turns out to be the question of the origin of biological informationInformation and the Origin of Life takes up the fundamental problems of whether and, if so, to what extent the origin of semantic information during evolution can be explained as a general phenomenon within the framework of physics and chemistry. The results could have far-reaching consequences for such fields as the philosophy of mind and artificial intelligence.Bernd-Olaf Küppers has long focused his attention on basic questions of natural science and the philosophy of science at the borders of physics, chemistry, and biology. He has been engaged since 1971 in research at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, and from 1979 to 1984 he held lecture courses in philosophy at the University of Göttingen

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is an essential contribution toward the solution of one of the fundamental problems of biology." Sir John Kendrew

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Product Details

• Hardcover: 237 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (April 11, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 026211142X
• ISBN-13: 978-0262111423
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,034,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars CONTEXTUAL Information, January 17, 2001

By 

David Ussery (Lyngby Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Information and the Origin of Life (Hardcover)

Kuppers argues that information theory is a bit like real estate - the most important thing is location (or CONTEXT). Most biological information depends on WHERE it is located, both in terms of physical location within the cell as well as the location within a piece of DNA or protein. In my opinion, this is an important aspect that is sometimes left out (unfortunately) in discussions of information theory, where often a totally random sequence is said to be capable of containing the most information. But biology is about CONTEXT, and so a periodic pattern, whilst it might be able to encode LESS information than a random sequence, contains a lot of BIOLOGICAL information.

Kuppers asks the question of "where does biological information come from?", and offers three possibilities:

(1.) The chance hypothesis (Life is the result of a random accident. He cites Jacque Monad's "CHANCE AND NECESSITY: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology").

(2.) The teleological approach (which is close to that of William Dembski's "THE DESIGN INFERENCE: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities").

(3.) The molecular-Darwinistic approach (a reductionistic approach, taking into account information theory and far-from-equilibrium chemistry).

In my opinion, the third approach makes a lot of sense, and Kuppers does a good job of outlining his point of view. I think that part of the problem with the creation/evolution debate is that often the argument focuses only on the first two options.

0 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Regarding Science-Ejected Vitalism, 1990:, March 11, 2008

By 

Robert J. Cullen "'Dr. Bob Ironic'" (Bridgeport, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Information and the Origin of Life (Hardcover)

Vitalism is a profoundly science-ejected concept, though many CAM or 'natural health' cabals falsely claim that vitalism survives scientific scrutiny.

I quote:

"the best-known and in the history of science the oldest form of real material teleology is the so-called vitalism. In the formation of vitalistic theories, the phenomenon of 'life' is understood as the consequence of a life-specific force (vis vitalis) that arranges life processes in a purposeful and system -sustaining manner [p.074...] today, the vitalistic position, with its holistic thinking and its resulting notion of a system-preserving life force, is no longer tenable [p.113...] vitalism, even it its pseudoscientific form, has been shaken to the root by the findings of modern biology [p.185]."

-r.c.