In the Beginning was Information

and the correct optical rotation, it would still not be the start ofevolution. There must be a coding system to store informationabout this protein so that it can be replicated at a later stage. But acoding system can never originate in matter as precluded by Theorem11. The Miller experiments thus does not contribute to anexplanation of the origin of life.Q15: SOS signals are periodic; does this not contradict your necessarycondition NC2 (paragraph 4.2)?A15: OTTO is also periodic, but it still is information. It is possiblethat brief sequences of symbols can contain periodic repetitions,but nobody would regard the decimal number 12.12 as aperiodic fraction just because of the repetition of the digits.Q16: Can new information originate through mutations?A16: This idea is central in representations of evolution, but mutationscan only cause changes in existing information. There can beno increase in information, and in general the results are injurious.New blueprints for new functions or new organs cannot arise; mutationscannot be the source of new (creative) information.Q17: When the structure of a crystal is studied by means of amicroscope, much information may be gained. Where and who isthe sender in this case?A17: No coding system is involved in this example and reality isobserved directly. This case lies outside the domain of definition ofinformation as discussed in Chapter 5. The substitutionary functionis absent, so that the theorems cannot be applied.Q18: Has your definition of information been selected arbitrarily(see chapter 4 and 5)? Could there not be other possibilities?A18: Of course one could select other definitions, as often happens.My purpose was to demarcate a region where assertions ofthe nature of natural laws can be made. It is only in this way possibleto formulate definitive assertions for unknown cases by meansof known empirical theorems. The domain of definition is thus notas arbitrary as it might appear, but it has been dictated in the lastinstance by empirical realities.Q19: Biological systems are more complicated than technical systems.So shouldn’t an individual definition be introduced for biologicalinformation?127