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