8.2 A Truth You Might Not Want to Know

Proteins in all their myriad forms are the semantic equivalent of tools, machine parts and machines themselves. In engineering terms this is just the bio form of technology. Functional proteins range from just 11 amino acids (casein) to several hundreds. Take myoglobin an oxygen storage molecule residing in the muscle tissue of mammals. The logical improbability of its DNA (codon set) is 1e338. From 7.2 we know the second law applies to the evolutionary process on earth but lets go right over the top and consider the whole universe, can it pay the entropy debt of myoglobin? The universe is estimated to contain 1e80 atoms and be 14 billion years old which is 1e20 milliseconds. Now lets calculate the total event capacity of the universe, 1e80 x 1e20 = 1e100 (atom milliseconds). That figure is the maximum event capacity of the entire universe, its ability to do random trials or from the foregoing its entropy bank balance. It means that any state of matter with a logical improbability exceeding that figure cannot be the result of a series of random events without implying a net decrease in entropy contravening the second law. Selection and reproduction can bias the outcome to reduce the total improbability of the outcome and this must be accounted for in any model.

Myoglobin exists in a number of slightly variant forms in different creatures some by just a single amino acid. This has been described as a measure of the evolutionary distance between these types. This is misleading because it ignores functional differences between variant species which may require different myoglobins and if so would not change the logical improbability of any one molecule. They are all highly improbable molecules and the question is can they be the result of random mutation with selection. The only alternative is of course a non-random process – a creation event!

The result is partially verified in the Wikipedia topic 'Evolutionary Algorithm' ie the actual test of the algorithm, viz..

“Techniques from evolutionary algorithms applied to the modeling of biological evolution are generally limited to explorations of microevolutionary processes, however some computer simulations, such as Tierra and Avida, attempt to model macroevolutionary dynamics.”

You may note the goal of the random creation of semantic information (macroevolution) by modelling mutation and natural selection has not been achieved. It will never be achieved if it is shown to be a violation of the second law.

Have a really nice day..