THE IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY PROBLEM

By this seemingly complex term, I refer to man’s approach to the understanding of his environment. The view of any human being is limited to his/her experience. A simple device such as a wrist watch would seem like witchcraft or sorcery to the 10^th century mind. This is due to the simple lack of understanding and awareness of the cumulative history of the wrist watch.

Breaking down the term; “irreducible” means that the item in question cannot be taken apart or broken down to smaller, less difficult parts. In this context it also means that the item does not have a cumulative history behind its formation thus its existence is sudden and unprecedented. The word complexity refers to the level of difficulty in laws and concepts that are involved in the nature or existence of an item. From this then, the phrase irreducible complexity refers to a conclusion that the human mind cannot break down an item because it is completely whole, independent and possesses a difficulty of 100% which only an infinitely supreme intelligence is capable of understanding.

To better explain this common problem in general human logic, I will use everyday examples such as the cell phone to explain the various levels of irreducible complexity I have identified in human beings.

The First Level of the Irreducible Complexity Problem (Simple Ignorance)

If you have any piece of technology with you at this moment, please take a moment to study it. It could be a cell phone, a watch, a laptop or car. I will use a cell phone in this situation since it is the most common piece of technology in today’s society. Look at the design of the cell phone, push a button or touch the screen. Amazing, isn’t it? How the hell does a human being think up such a clever device? Whoever came up with such a device must be some kind of genius, right? If you are like me and have been exposed to subjects like electronics, system analysis and product design, these questions will not cross your mind at all. For the majority of human beings, however, technology remains a mystery; much like witchcraft. Very few people know the history of semi-conductors, transistors, capacitors and circuits. To them- though they might not want to openly admit it- the cell phone is a magic stone. In fact many people are so bewildered by modern technology that they either believe that it is satanic sorcery or extra terrestrial intervention. Therein lays the trap of irreducible complexity. To see a cell phone as a complete, single object and discard its historical evolution as well as that of its components makes it irreducibly complex and this bewilders the untamed mind to a point of idolizing its creators. The same can be said about fashion, music, mathematics, business e.t.c. The visual effects and complex events exhibited in recent blockbusters such as James Cameron’s Avatar often leave their audiences with gaping mouths. Even those with knowledge of imaging technology and recent literal developments are still bewildered by these seemingly unearthly fits of human ingenuity and creativity. I do not seek to belittle the hard work and determination that goes into these kinds of projects but to demystify them so that I can bring them within the reach of the unexposed mind.

To better understand anything manmade one needs not be an expert in everything. All you need to understand is that the only thing that has ever been invented by one man is probably fire –well, rather the intentional creation of fire. Once fire had been invented, everything it was used to do down to the computers we use and the cars we drive today must be accredited to the first man who discovered fire. What do I mean by this? Well, fire has been either a tool or a component in most human advances to date and thus we must accredit even the cars we drive today to this man who discovered fire. Now, the first human being who used fire to shape metal cannot take all the credit for inventing the shaping of metal. He must share this credit with his predecessor who discovered fire. Were it not for the discovery of fire then man would never have discovered how to shape metal beyond simply bending or cutting it. Once someone had discovered how to shape metal with fire, someone else was provided with the opportunity to use metal to create containers, wheels, chariots, weapons, tools and the list goes on to this very day and onwards into the future. At every point of advancement there is a slight degree of development which is effected by one or more human beings trying to use what already exists both physically and mentally to solve their problems. In order to truly credit the inventors of anything, one then has to trace all its components to their origin and credit all the people involved in all the small degrees of development that made this particular invention possible. With this in mind, take another look at your cell phone. You cannot just credit any one man for creating that technology. I personally do not recommend what I’m about to ask of you - so please, no law suits- but if you were to smash your cell phone to bits and study them individually, each small fragment would have volumes of historical information behind it that brought it to the palm of your arms. The attractive plastic casing can be traced backwards to a point where electronic manufacture’s realized they needed to make the cover of their products attractive to their consumers in order to compete with other manufactures. This can be further traced back to a point in time when builders of electronic gadgets realized that they needed a convenient, light weight cover to both protect the delicate parts of their gadgets from damage and the user from the hazards of the gadget such as electric shock, corrosive substances and radiation. The material that was best suited for this purpose can then be traced back to a point when plastic was discovered to be a reliable, light weight and long lasting solution for the containment of all substances below its melting point since once it forms and is kept below its melting point, it rarely reacts with anything that comes in contact with it. This can be then traced back to the discovery of polymers, plastic being one of them. That can also be traced back to the beginning of the study of the behavior of carbon based materials and especially so those that were byproducts of the burning of fossil fuel; then to the discovery of oil and on and on until one would eventually find themselves at the beginning: the discovery of fire. The same can be done with the microchips, circuit boards, transistors, capacitors and wires you will find inside your cell phone. All those pieces have individual stories that culminate in them ending up in that piece of technology in your hand. It is also important to realize that no one human being brought all those pieces together to form the cell phone. All those pieces came together at different points in history as other less developed technologies. Later those smaller groups of smaller technologies that served separate purposes at their time where found to serve completely different purposes when combined. This stacking of technologies one on top of the other to increase the function of a tool are the small degrees of evolution that gave birth to your cell phone. The simplest sign of this pattern is the fact that even now as you read this, the cell phone is still evolving. Yet more technology that was not previously thought to be usable in a cell phone but had other uses is being pilled onto the cell phone. In fact, the cell phone itself seems to be disappearing under this pile of technology. The original purpose of the handheld device called the cell phone was simple one on one communication. With every new model of mobile devices, the communication aspect seems to be receding into just another function of the handheld device. It is now a research device, a data collection device, a data storage and transfer device, a mobile entertainment source, a business tool, a remote control for other devices; you name it.

This form of deductive thinking is the cure to the logic inhibitor I refer to as irreducible complexity. A cell phone viewed as a complete object is a mind boggling phenomenon that would push the mind to resort to superstition to ease its inability to understand it. But once you look at it as a stack of assembled technologies, with each component technology assembled by a separate group of people using even smaller bits of technology developed and built by yet another group of people all tied together by a system developed by another group of people who are guided by a purpose set forth by yet another group of people and so on; then the mystery of the cell phone dissipates into a simple understanding of the beauty of human interaction and thought. People often say anything is possible. I agree completely but I would like to add something more to this statement: Anything is possible as long as one breaks it down to its most basic components. A sky scrapper can be built one floor at a time. A mountain can be moved one truck-load of rocks at a time. This in itself is the true essence of existence. It is the pattern of life and the entire universe. How so? See ‘Escalation by Degrees’ later on.

Hopefully, the above explanation has broken down the world a little and given you a better perspective on how human beings are able to develop everything from airplanes to mathematics, to medicine. The lazy mind would rather not bother itself with all these details. This kind of mind would rather spend time forming theories about aliens and ghosts rather than research something they do not understand. Do I believe that there are other life forms out there? Yes I do. The billion in a billion-billion probability theory is statistically solid enough to guarantee some kind of life somewhere out there in the Universe. Do I believe they might have found and visited the earth without causing a great disturbance? Well, the chances of that are a bit fuzzier though I still leave an open mind. Regardless, it would be quite ignorant to say that these supposed beings shared their technology with us. The lazy theist mind of the first century was content with leaving everything it could not understand to a force out there somewhere that was greater than they. When roman philosophy, research and science came up with results that went against the beliefs of the dogmatized simpleton, they were viewed as direct acts against god. They were viewed as acts of the devil. At this time most of Asia was governed by hierarchical systems which gave birth to hierarchical belief systems. The ignorance of most of Asia at this time led most peoples of the continent to believe that humanity was not equal and that some people were meant to be royalty, others to be subjects and yet others to be slaves. I agree with Mangasarian in his book “The Jesus Myth” when he explains that this is the origin of a supreme god. The social pyramid of Asian society needed an apex to keep it from crumbling. Unlike a logical pyramid where the base is the strength of the entire pyramid, the mind of the ancient Asian created one that was held up from the top. Thus, the royalty at the top were seen to hold up the higher classes, and the higher classes held up the classes below them and so on until the lowest people who were the servants and slaves who absolutely believed that they should be completely grateful to the higher classes for their kindness in allowing them to exist. All this was tied up in a neat structure of social exploitation that sucked all the resources upwards from the bottom and concentrated them at the top. This system however depended on people believing that they were indeed lower and less important than those in higher society. The lowest people had to keep their heads bowed or even lie prostrate on the ground to show how small they were and how grateful they were to their masters. At the very top of this social pyramid, as I said before, there had to be an apex that held it all up. Now, take a minute to picture a president or a minister and the power he/she has due to his/her access to resources. Now take away your own resources and leave yourself with nothing. On top of that, pile up complete ignorance. Assume you know nothing of how government or economy works. Then pile on top of that, a systemized process of brainwashing that from childhood makes you believe that you are lower than the helpless worm that crawls at your feet. By now I’m sure the president looks like a god. Now imagine the majority of Asians who were at the bottom of the pyramid. To them a king must have seemed like an unreachable god. The simple Asian could not understand that it was he who provided the endless resources that allowed the king to live this godly life. To take this idea further, now consider that this king was still only a human being and vulnerable to all the weaknesses thereof. He fell sick, he lusted, he became hungry, he died, and he had no power to change the weather or force crops to grow in the fields. For the ancient mind without the understanding of nature, there was no doubt that surely there had to be a higher being in control of all these, one more powerful than the king who was in himself a god in all right; a king of kings. It was already very rare to see or hear directly from the king so less so from the king of kings. When a royal decree was made it had to be passed down the classes. The word of the king was only heard but never directly from the king as he was too mighty to be faced by the lowly worms on the ground. How much less then the king of all the kings? He was supreme. He was all powerful. He could not be seen by even the highest classes and compared to this great king, men were but worms on the ground. And in this darkness of human reason, the supreme god was born; a terrifying, selfish and unquestionable god, an infinite multiple factor of the earthly kings. From this frame of thought, the various monotheistic gods of Asia were born and ruled the hearts and minds of all people. The people of the time saw him as a champion and treated him like they would all other kings and champions of that age. They told tales of god like they did of champions. And just like the tales of the champions, each tale would be exaggerated a little more every time it was told. A champions’ tale that began as a simple man with a burning stick scaring away a tiger and saving the princess from its danger would by the next generation be the legend of the great fire-breathing warrior who fought the great tiger demon from hell to rescue the goddess. In an age when events were hardly ever accurately recorded if at all, these tales were not fairytales but solid facts passed down by the all wise elders to their children. In an ignorant non-questioning society, it is not difficult to see how everything would have been seen as irreducibly complex and when something is irreducibly complex then it has to be and should not be questioned. With every generation, the power of god increased and the worth of man decreased in comparison. Asia was swallowed in an endless ocean of self-depreciation; a sharp contrast to the self-appreciating mindset of their European counterparts who believed in rights and freedoms of all human beings even their own slaves. This, I hope to expound further in my piece on the origin of dogma, was the downfall of the Roman Empire. Their greatest strength –knowledge- made their empire vulnerable to the overwhelming ignorance of most of the rest of the world. When the Roman Empire finally fell to the Christians and Jews, the world was plunged into complete darkness for more than a thousand years. These were the most terrible years of human existence and we are only just waking up from this darkness, very slowly; a few human minds at a time.

The Second Level of the Irreducible Complexity Problem

The cell phone problem only served to explain one end of the irreducible complexity problem. I am sure that many readers still have questions that they have decided can only be answered by a form of irreducible complexity, whether they are aware of these questions or simply still unconvinced that not everything can be reduced. If you were able to clearly understand the first level of irreducible complexity, then I believe that if you are not a quick thinker-which very few human beings are not including myself as it has taken me all my 22 years of existence to figure these things out- I believe you are now at the second level of irreducible complexity.

More on the next post.