The scientist is now locked in a room
with four doors. He is told that if he opens any door, the computer will let him know the
combination for that door by locking the words responsible for opening the door. The
combinations are as follows:
Inner door drink-computer-cat-*- *-*- *- *- *-*- *.
Second door drink-computer-cat-cat-bike-book-*- *-*-*-*-*.
Third door drink-computer-cat-cat-bike-book-book-run-man-*-*-*.
Last door drink-computer-cat-cat-bike-book-book-run-man-sun-dog- fun.
After a few thousand tries, the scientist enters drink-computer-cat-
cat-bike-man-sun-dog-dog-cat-drink-run (figure 2.4). The first door opens, and the
computer locks the combination of this door. The scientist can no longer change the first
three words. So instead of picking 12 words from the basket, he now picks 9. He enters
these into the computer and presses enter. After a few thousand tries, he enters
cat-bike-book-fun-run-man-fun-dog-dog. The second door opens and the computer locks the
first 6 words, so that they cannot be changed. The scientist continues now drawing 6
words. When he enters book-run- man-dog-cat-cat, the third door opens. The computer locks
the first 9 letters, and the scientist continues. When he enters sun-dog-fun the last door
opens (figure 2.5).
Figure 2.4: Trapped Scientist with 4 Doors
and Short Combinations
Figure 2.5: Trapped Scientist with 4 Doors Open
Notice that the knowledge required to open the last door in figure 2.5
is identical to that required in figure 2.2. The scientist finds the knowledge required in
this example, and he fails in the previous one. Why? Each door represents a step in
knowledge. All steps in figure 2.4 and 2.5 are small (3 words). Furthermore, because the
computer preserves the combinations that open doors, only combinations that are close to
the desired combination are preserved.
The same amount of knowledge is needed to open the last door in this
example, but the correct combination is found because the steps in knowledge needed to
find it are kept small (by using 4 doors instead of one). Now suppose the combinations are
as follows:
Inner door drink-computer-cat-cat-*-book-*- run- man-*-dog-fun.
Second door drink- computer- cat- cat- bike- book-*-run-man-*- dog- fun.
Third door drink-computer-cat-cat-bike-book-book-run-man-*- dog-fun.
Last door drink-computer-cat-cat-bike-book-book-run-man-sun- dog-fun.
The odds of opening the first door are now 1 in 512 billion. The
scientist never opens the first door ( Figure 2.6).
These examples show that the number of new words needed to open a door
determines whether or not chance will open the door. Each combination represents a step in
knowledge. If the steps are small, (three new words or less), then the combinations are
easily found by drawing the words from the basket. If the steps are large, (nine new words
or more), then chance can no longer reliably find the combination.
Figure 2.6: Trapped Scientist with 4 Doors but One Large Step
When Darwin introduced the theory of evolution, he did not consider
information. But he did mandate that the changes must be slight and continuous. So he did
at least understand the nature of the problem. Darwin's premise is simple. Small
changes that provide an advantage are preserved by nature. Over millions of years, these
changes are cumulative and thus lead to very large changes. His theory works if and only
if the steps in knowledge are small.
The scientist in the locked room with 4 doors models natural selection.
When the scientist opens a door, the computer preserves the combination that opened the
door. That is once a small amount of knowledge is created by chance, the computer
preserves it. This preservation is fully analogous to natural selection in biological
systems. With the help of natural selection, the scientist can easily find the combination
to a hundred doors or more (as long as the combinations are three words or less). But if
the first door's combination is large, 9 words or more as in figure 2.6, then
chance is no longer effective. All doors remain closed.
Natural selection is not effective when the steps are large because
chance never finds the correct combination, and there is no knowledge for natural
selection to preserve. So the size of the first step is critical. It completely determines
whether or not the scientist can find the correct combination.
Just like before, each door can be represented by a wall (figure 2.7).
Since there are 4 doors, there are 4 walls. The walls are now pushed against each other so
that they form a series of steps. If all of the steps are small then the scientist can
easily climb to the top - even if there are a thousand steps. But just one large step can
present a serious problem. The 19.5 foot wall is very difficult for the scientist to
climb. For the scientist to get over this wall, he will need some help.
Figure 2.7: Steps in Knowledge: Doors Represented as Walls
next: Darwinian Evolution
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