No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Darwin's greatest accomplishment was to show that life can be explained as the result of natural selection. But does this mean that life was intended to be? William A. Dembski, exanding on his earlier work, "The Design Inference", here defends that life must be the product of intelligent design. The evolutionary algorithms of the No Free Lunch Theory support modern beliefs introduced by Darwin and criticize Dembski's stance in "The Design Inference". In "No Free Lunch" Dembski addresses and refutes such claims and reveals a "designer" capable of originating the complexity and specificity found throughout the cosmos.

About the Author

William A. Dembski is associate research professor in the conceptual foundations of science at Baylor University and senior fellow with Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture in Seattle. Dr. Dembski has published articles in mathematics, philosophy, and theology journals and is the author of seven books.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742512975
• ISBN-13: 978-0742512979
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #465,694 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Mathematical Proof of Intelligent Design, June 21, 2006

By	Discovery Reviewer (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

No Free Lunch, the sequel to mathematician and philosopher William Dembski's Cambridge University Press book The Design Inference, explores key questions about the origin of specified complexity. Dembski explains that the Darwinian search mechanism of random mutation coupled with natural selection is incapable of generating novel complex, specified information (CSI).

This observation translates into "No Free Lunch" (NFL) theorems, which Dembski explains are inherent constraints upon natural systems. Natural Darwinian mechanisms can shuffle this information around, but only intelligence can generate novel CSI. In other words, when it comes to generating truly novel biological complexity, Darwin can have no free lunch.

Some critics have asserted that he has never applied his model for detecting design to any real biological systems. The latter half of this book debunks this fallacious objection, and provides a detailed calculation of the CSI found in the bacterial flagellum. Dembski assesses the complexity of the flagellum on various levels, including its protein parts and its assembly instructions, finding that the amount of CSI contained in the flagellum vastly outweigh the probabilistic resources available in the history of the universe to construct such a structure, absent intelligent design.

No Free Lunch demonstrates that design theory shows great promise of providing insight in the field of evolutionary computation. If Dembski is right, then the ability of genetic algorithms to solve complex problems is a function of the amount of intelligent design inputted by their programmers.

82 of 125 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important, Milestone Arguments, May 22, 2002

By	Paul C. Smith "Paul C Smith" (Chicagoland, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a strong addition to the growing body of literature on Intelligent Design theory and its applicability to questions of biological origins. To those who are interested in ID, its progress, its arguments, etc., No Free Lunch (NFL) should be considered required reading; it contains important, milestone arguments for that school of thought.

NFL should also be required reading for ID's critics -- *especially* those who would assume to review it! I am dumbfounded that some of this book's reviewers here on Amazon presume to criticize Dembski, the book, or ID in general while failing to in any way engage the substance of the book; e.g. Tim Beazley comments that Dembski overlooks the possibility of common descent and Intelligent Design being compatible, when nowhere does NFL claim to disprove common descent. Jean P Villard complains that ID-proponents have failed to demonstrate that Christian doctrine follows from the truth of ID, a claim that is so far outside the scope of NFL that I question whether Villard read the book or not.

In sum, No Free Lunch speaks to the question of whether genetic algorithms - and hence Darwin's mechanism - are or are not capable of creating the sort of specified complexity that we find in the biological world, as many neo-Darwinians claim (e.g., in different ways, Stuart Kauffman and Richard Dawkins). In this work, Dembski claims to demonstrate that they are not.
Those kudos and criticisms of this book which do not deal with that claim are largely irrelevant. Time will tell whether Dembski is right or wrong about the NFL theorems and their applicability to biological origins. In the meanwhile, interested readers would be well advised to stay informed about Dembski's actual arguments and the relevant responses to them from competent critics, and one cannot know the latter without knowing the former.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book!, May 30, 2009

By	Michael Trapp - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence (Paperback)

This book is inspiring and well argued. I have been interested in the ultimate question - is evolution true? - for some time now - in fact it was when I read the words of PZ Myers, "I say, screw the polite words and careful rhetoric. It's time for scientists to break out the steel-toed boots and brass knuckles, and get out there and hammer on the lunatics and idiots. If you don't care enough for the truth to fight for it, then get out of the way."

Then, when I saw videos of Dawkins and Sagan insisting that humans are related to halibuts, and oak trees, respectively, I decided to inform myself why they were so certain of this and so unwilling to entertain alternative theories. That's when I entered the chaotic, raucous, hellish parallel universe that the evolution vs. creationism debate has become. And I bought this and several other books on the topic.

I am hoping that wherever we are on 'evolutionary' continuum, we can at least take a deep breath, let it out, and listen to one another. The mathematics in this book can, IF WE ARE RATIONAL BEINGS, contribute to some objectivity and perhaps we can all calm down again. We are told the evidence in favor of evolution is overwhelming, that we should just accept it, that to question it is merely an overt act of stupidity - I find such sentiments boorish and offputting. An intelligent person can question and can expect to find adequate explanations for those questions without being browbeaten and intellectually bullied for it.

This book is a welcome and refreshing course of instruction on the mathematical requirements for evolutionary processes to have taken place. Indeed, there is sufficient discussion here to entertain mathematics majors and PHDs for quite some time. You may want to wait for the reader's digest condensed version if your eyes always glazed over in statistics classes.

However, I did find the concept of Complex Specified Information understandable and useful. I think this author is on to something. I think his arguments need to be taken into account. I can't see any person truly interested in science lightly dismissing this book with a wave of their hand. This book is a rational and mathematical challenge to evolutionary orthodoxy.