0:00:00.050,0:00:02.690 There's been a lot of talk very recently, 0:00:02.690,0:00:04.420 or definitely over the last several years, 0:00:04.420,0:00:10.090 about the idea of intelligent design and how it compares to evolution. 0:00:10.090,0:00:15.360 And my goal in this video isn't kind of enter into that discussion, 0:00:15.360,0:00:18.610 or it's actually turned into an argument in most circles, 0:00:18.610,0:00:25.570 but really to make my best attempt to kind of reconcile the notions. 0:00:25.570,0:00:27.750 So the idea behind intelligent design is really that 0:00:27.750,0:00:30.120 there are some things that we see in our world 0:00:30.120,0:00:33.580 that are just so amazing that it seems hard to believe 0:00:33.580,0:00:39.030 that it could be the product of a set of random processes. 0:00:39.030,0:00:42.010 And the example that tends to be given is the human eye, 0:00:42.010,0:00:45.060 which truly is an awe-inspiring device. 0:00:45.060,0:00:47.020 You can call it an organ or a machine. 0:00:47.020,0:00:49.660 Whatever you want to call it,it does all of these amazing things. 0:00:49.660,0:00:51.580 It can focus at different lengths. 0:00:51.580,0:00:54.860 It brings the light into focus at just the right spot, 0:00:54.860,0:00:59.540 and then you have your retinal nerves and you have two eyes 0:00:59.540,0:01:02.340 so can see in stereoscopic vision.You can see in colors, 0:01:02.350,0:01:04.610 and then you can adjust to light and dark, 0:01:04.610,0:01:06.550 so the human eye truly is awe inspiring. 0:01:06.550,0:01:08.150 And the argument tends to go that,look, 0:01:08.150,0:01:10.540 how can this be created from random processes? 0:01:10.540,0:01:13.810 And the goal of this isn't to trace the evolution of the eye, 0:01:13.810,0:01:17.000 but I'll do a little side note here that evolution is-- 0:01:17.000,0:01:19.910 and natural selection,and I like the word natural selection more 0:01:19.920,0:01:22.590 because it's not talking about an active process. 0:01:22.590,0:01:26.570 Natural selection is acting over eons and eons of time, 0:01:26.570,0:01:29.830 and we do see evidence in our world 0:01:29.830,0:01:32.540 of a progression of different types of eyes. 0:01:32.540,0:01:38.990 In fact,all evidence shows that the human eye is not perfect, 0:01:38.990,0:01:42.090 and that there is variation. 0:01:42.090,0:01:46.090 I mean, we all know some of us are nearsighted,some are farsighted. 0:01:46.090,0:01:48.560 We have astigmatisms.It degenerates over time. 0:01:48.560,0:01:51.870 People generate cataracts,so there's a whole set of things 0:01:51.870,0:01:55.510 that can go wrong with the human eye.I'm not using that as a rebuttal 0:01:55.510,0:01:58.690 but I'm just showing you that there is variation, 0:01:58.690,0:02:04.330 even in what I believe is truly an amazing piece of biology. 0:02:04.330,0:02:06.600 And even if you go outside of the human world, 0:02:06.600,0:02:09.010 there's obviously a huge spectrum of eyes. 0:02:09.010,0:02:12.780 You have fish at the bottom of the ocean that have eyes 0:02:12.780,0:02:16.220 that are really just light sensors,that barely can maybe tell you-- 0:02:16.220,0:02:17.460 and some insects are like this-- 0:02:17.460,0:02:20.610 whether there's some light or some heat around, 0:02:20.610,0:02:22.090 nothing really more than that. 0:02:22.090,0:02:23.980 And at the other end of the spectrum,far better than humans, 0:02:23.990,0:02:27.900 you have certain birds and a certain type of nocturnal creatures 0:02:27.900,0:02:29.060 where they can see in the dark. 0:02:29.060,0:02:34.030 You know,maybe you have a certain--actually,all cats 0:02:34.030,0:02:37.000 have this reflective material in their eye that allows them 0:02:37.000,0:02:39.440 much better night vision,so in that way they're superior to humans, 0:02:39.440,0:02:43.000 and they can see just as good as humans during the daytime. 0:02:43.000,0:02:47.280 You have certain birds who can see with far more visual clarity 0:02:47.290,0:02:51.040 at far better distances than humans can,so there is no perfect eye. 0:02:51.040,0:02:53.930 So I'll go into a little bit of a theological argument here, 0:02:53.940,0:02:55.640 and for those of you who watch my videos, 0:02:55.640,0:02:58.030 you know that I'm one to stray away from theological arguments, 0:02:58.030,0:03:01.560 although I might eventually do a whole philosophy playlist, 0:03:01.560,0:03:05.920 but I want to be very careful not to offend anyone's sensibilities, 0:03:05.920,0:03:10.000 because that truly,truly,truly is not my intention. 0:03:10.000,0:03:12.710 But the whole point I want to make is that,look, 0:03:12.710,0:03:13.910 if you believe in a God, 0:03:13.910,0:03:18.770 and I won't take sides on that argument in this video right here, 0:03:18.770,0:03:23.000 it's to some degree,I would say, 0:03:23.000,0:03:28.450 almost disparaging of an all-powerful being to say that this human eye 0:03:28.460,0:03:32.000 it kind of gives too much importance to us as individuals. 0:03:32.000,0:03:37.040 I always think that religion--and actually science. 0:03:37.040,0:03:38.550 Or actually everything. 0:03:38.550,0:03:40.060 I mean,we should be humble in our lives, 0:03:40.060,0:03:43.480 and there should be the realization that we,as humans,really-- 0:03:43.480,0:03:51.000 this isn't perfection,and to imply that this is the best that a 0:03:51.000,0:03:54.450 perfect entity or an all-powerful entity could produce 0:03:54.460,0:03:57.030 I think is a little actually disparaging of it. 0:03:57.030,0:03:59.600 I'll give you another example.I give you another example, 0:03:59.600,0:04:02.040 and I'll put my engineering hat on here. 0:04:02.040,0:04:03.960 And once again,I want to be very clear. 0:04:03.960,0:04:07.490 My goal isn't in this video to say,oh,you know,look,hey, 0:04:07.490,0:04:11.540 evolution,random processes,that by itself,there is no God, 0:04:11.550,0:04:13.080 and you just have to live with it. No,that's not my point. 0:04:13.080,0:04:15.310 I'm actually making the opposite argument, 0:04:15.310,0:04:21.750 that a belief in God would not point to a God who-- 0:04:21.750,0:04:26.800 a belief in a universal,all-powerful God would not point to a God 0:04:26.800,0:04:31.050 who designs the particular,who designs each particular. 0:04:31.050,0:04:34.950 And even more,the imperfections that we see around us would-- 0:04:34.950,0:04:37.480 and especially because we see variation 0:04:37.480,0:04:38.640 and they're being selected for it. 0:04:38.640,0:04:40.090 I mean, we can't just focus on the eye. 0:04:40.090,0:04:41.760 We would have to focus on viruses and cancers, 0:04:41.760,0:04:45.430 and it would have to speak to a God that is designing 0:04:45.430,0:04:50.990 one of every version of every sequence of DNA that we see, 0:04:50.990,0:04:54.420 because if someone talks about designing an eye, 0:04:54.420,0:04:56.940 we know that the eye is the byproduct of DNA, 0:04:56.940,0:05:03.220 and we know the DNA is a sequence of base pairs, 0:05:03.220,0:05:04.690 you know,ATG,C,A,and, 0:05:04.690,0:05:07.020 you know,billions and billions of them. 0:05:07.020,0:05:09.350 And so when we talk about design, 0:05:09.350,0:05:12.550 we would be talking literally about designing the sequence. 0:05:12.550,0:05:14.320 And we even know that a lot of the sequence, 0:05:14.330,0:05:15.020 there's some noise in there. 0:05:15.020,0:05:16.790 We know that a lot of it comes from 0:05:16.790,0:05:19.080 primitive viruses deep in our past. 0:05:19.080,0:05:20.930 So the argument I'm making here is that 0:05:20.940,0:05:29.320 in order to give credit to the all powerful,at least to my mind, 0:05:29.320,0:05:43.960 a system that comes from very simple and elegant basic ideas 0:05:43.960,0:05:49.500 like natural selection and variations,that in our DNA, 0:05:49.500,0:05:53.920 we call those mutations,in the laws of physics and chemistry, 0:05:53.920,0:05:58.950 and those,from that simple and elegant basic ideas, 0:05:58.950,0:06:03.030 for complexity to emerge.for complexity to emerge. 0:06:03.030,0:06:06.010 So this is one idea and this is what really evolution speaks to, 0:06:06.010,0:06:10.540 that,look,our universe is this profound world, 0:06:10.540,0:06:13.960 this profound environment, 0:06:13.970,0:06:16.460 where from these very basic,simple,beautiful ideas, 0:06:16.460,0:06:19.560 we have this complexity in the structure that is 0:06:19.560,0:06:23.000 truly,truly,truly awe inspiring. 0:06:23.000,0:06:26.000 This is,in my mind,what evolution speaks to. 0:06:26.000,0:06:28.390 And in my mind,even as an engineer, 0:06:28.390,0:06:31.090 this speaks to a higher form of design. 0:06:31.090,0:06:37.860 This speak to a more profound design.more profound design. 0:06:37.860,0:06:41.930 So this whole video,the whole argument,is that 0:06:41.930,0:06:44.850 if one does believe in a God,and,you know, 0:06:44.850,0:06:49.690 I'm not going to take sides in that in this video, 0:06:49.690,0:06:53.510 and a God that speaks to beauty and elegance 0:06:53.510,0:06:59.280 and is infinitely powerful,then this idea of the laws of 0:06:59.280,0:07:01.900 physics and chemistry and natural selection, 0:07:01.900,0:07:02.940 which is really-- I mean,you know, 0:07:02.940,0:07:05.480 when I talked about natural selection in the last video, 0:07:05.480,0:07:05.940 it was really-- 0:07:05.940,0:07:08.580 I think you would find it was a bit of common sense. 0:07:08.580,0:07:11.900 That this is a very profound design 0:07:11.900,0:07:15.770 and it speaks to the art of the designer 0:07:15.770,0:07:20.010 as opposed to designing each of these entities one off. 0:07:20.010,0:07:24.090 And what's even more profound about the design is that it's adaptive. 0:07:24.090,0:07:27.540 If there's environmental stress, 0:07:27.540,0:07:32.040 then the other variations survive more frequently. 0:07:32.040,0:07:34.620 And so it's never changing,that perfection, 0:07:34.620,0:07:37.740 that no instance can ever be pointed to 0:07:37.740,0:07:41.880 and say this is the highest point that this design can reach. 0:07:41.880,0:07:44.540 That is always--I don't want to say getting better. 0:07:44.540,0:07:47.880 It's always getting more suited to its environment as it changes, 0:07:48.780,0:07:50.580 and that to me is a better design. 0:07:50.580,0:07:54.090 Now,just following up on that,and I want to be very clear. 0:07:54.090,0:07:57.570 This whole idea is to kind of raise the standard of 0:07:57.570,0:07:59.020 what we expect out of design. 0:07:59.020,0:08:01.700 It's to kind of show other points or other places 0:08:01.700,0:08:05.030 in the scientific or mathematical world where this does emerge. 0:08:05.030,0:08:08.080 And the best example I see of that is with fractals. 0:08:08.080,0:08:12.420 A lot of you-all might have seen--this is the Mandelbrot set, 0:08:12.420,0:08:16.020 a very famous set of fractals.It's immensely complex. 0:08:16.020,0:08:21.570 In fact,you can keep zooming in on the Mandelbrot set at any point, 0:08:21.570,0:08:23.640 and when you zoom it out,it becomes infinitely complex, 0:08:23.640,0:08:27.090 and you can explore it indefinitely. 0:08:27.090,0:08:29.530 But the beauty of it,the true beauty of it, 0:08:29.540,0:08:33.040 is all of this can be described by one equation, 0:08:33.040,0:08:38.060 one almost shockingly simple equation,and that's this: 0:08:38.060,0:08:45.030 The next z is equal to the z before it squared plus 1. 0:08:45.030,0:08:47.500 And you're like to say you know,Sal,you started talking about 0:08:47.500,0:08:50.000 intelligent design and evolution and all of that. 0:08:50.000,0:08:52.050 Why are you all of a sudden breaking into fractals? 0:08:52.050,0:08:57.720 And the point I'm trying to make here is that if I had two designers 0:08:57.720,0:09:02.740 and one set out to go and paint this exact particular fractal 0:09:02.740,0:09:04.250 and say,oh,you know,I'm going to make this brown 0:09:04.250,0:09:05.200 and I'm going to make this blue 0:09:05.200,0:09:07.300 and I'm going to make this a circle with other circles, 0:09:07.300,0:09:10.540 you'd think this is an amazing painter. 0:09:10.540,0:09:15.300 For example,if you were to go to someone 300 years ago 0:09:15.300,0:09:16.750 and you were to show them this, 0:09:16.750,0:09:19.240 they would say that this is the finest design 0:09:19.240,0:09:21.910 that anyone might have ever been able to devise, 0:09:21.910,0:09:23.070 because it's so infinitely complex. 0:09:23.070,0:09:27.010 But now we know that this can be completely described by 0:09:27.010,0:09:29.080 this simple equation,literally. 0:09:29.080,0:09:32.000 For those of you are interested,all they're doing, 0:09:32.000,0:09:37.010 this is a complex plane,and they're starting at zero-- 0:09:37.010,0:09:39.080 excuse me,not plus 1,plus c. 0:09:39.080,0:09:43.010 Let me make that very clear.This is the equation plus c. 0:09:43.010,0:09:48.380 So for every point on the complex plane,you put that point in for c, 0:09:48.380,0:09:51.530 and then you start with zero,and you keep doing this. 0:09:51.530,0:09:52.740 So you say zero squared plus that number, 0:09:52.740,0:09:56.010 that complex number,is equal to that.Then you put that in here, 0:09:56.010,0:09:58.240 and then you do that number squared plus that complex number, 0:09:58.240,0:10:01.000 and you do it again. You do it over and over and over. 0:10:01.000,0:10:04.410 So turns out that some numbers don't go to infinity 0:10:04.420,0:10:06.550 and those numbers are in black. 0:10:06.550,0:10:09.080 They're considered part of the Mandelbrot set. 0:10:09.080,0:10:11.130 And then the numbers that do go to infinity, 0:10:11.130,0:10:14.230 as you iterate on this formula, 0:10:14.230,0:10:16.680 you color it based on how fast it goes to infinity, 0:10:16.690,0:10:22.360 and it creates this infinitely beautiful and complex pattern. 0:10:22.360,0:10:25.750 Now,if you were to say what is a more profound design, 0:10:25.750,0:10:27.530 and you can ask any engineer this, 0:10:27.530,0:10:30.080 in my mind,this is the most profound design. 0:10:30.080,0:10:33.360 Because it's simple and elegant, 0:10:33.360,0:10:38.010 but it describes something of infinite complexity. 0:10:38.010,0:10:40.000 It's not just focused on the particular, 0:10:40.010,0:10:42.000 it's focused on kind of the metalevel. 0:10:42.000,0:10:45.260 It's focused on creating just the idea 0:10:45.260,0:10:48.020 of which this is just an example. 0:10:48.020,0:10:55.060 So anyway,this is probably my video where I steer most away 0:10:55.060,0:11:00.340 from the science of it all and maybe I focus a little bit more 0:11:00.350,0:11:03.560 on the slightly metaphysical or the awe inspiring. 0:11:03.560,0:11:06.210 But my whole point here is to really throw out my little idea 0:11:06.210,0:11:08.540 of how you can reconcile these notions. 0:11:08.540,0:11:11.070 That evolution,the randomness of it, 0:11:11.070,0:11:14.310 does not speak to a Godless universe, 0:11:14.310,0:11:16.020 although I'm not going to take sides on that. 0:11:16.020,0:11:20.990 It speaks to a more profound God,in my mind. 0:11:20.990,0:11:26.430 So anyway,forgive me for taking my liberties, 0:11:26.430,0:11:28.470 and I want to make it very clear, 0:11:28.470,0:11:30.350 I don't want to offend anyone's sensibilities, 0:11:30.350,0:11:33.070 but I really just wanted to throw this idea out there. 0:11:33.070,0:11:35.040 See you in the next video.