Engineering and the Ultimate : An Interdisciplinary Investigation of Order and Design in Nature and Craft

The discipline of engineering presumes certain foundational truths that are not reducible to mathematical formulas. It presupposes certain things about creativity, beauty, and abstraction in order to operate effectively. In short, engineering relies on philosophy. Conversely, philosophy can draw profound truths from principles derived from engineering experience. Engineering and the Ultimate crosses boundaries between a wide variety of disciplines to find truths both new and old that can be transformative to modern thought and practice. Acknowledgements 8 IntroductionJonathan Bartlett 14 Philosophy and Pragmatism, Science and Engineering 14 Reintegrating Philosophy into Science and Engineering 16 The Engineering and Metaphysics 2012 Conference 17 Articles in this Volume 18 References 21 I Engineering, Philosophy, and Worldview 22 Reversible Universe: Implications of Affordance-based Reverse Engineering of Complex Natural SystemsDominic Halsmer, Michael Gewecke, Rachelle Gewecke, Nate Roman, Tyler Todd, and Jessica Fitzgerald 24 Introduction 25 Reverse Engineering Natural Systems 27 Interpreting Natural Systems 28 The “Artifact Hermeneutics” of Daniel Dennett 31 Reverse Engineering and Design Recovery Techniques 34 Affordance-based Reverse Engineering 37 How Affordances Assist in the Reverse Engineering of Natural Systems 38 Affordances for Human Life 39 Implications for Worldview 43 Conclusions 45 References 46 The Independence and Proper Roles of Engineering and Metaphysics in Support of an Integrated Understanding of God's CreationAlexander R. Sich 52 Introduction 53 Definitions and Differences of Sciences 55 The Role of Abstraction in Distinguishing the Particular Sciences 60 Metaphysics: The Foundational Science 62 Quo Vadis, Engineering? 64 A Case Study in the Failure to Properly Distinguish: Intelligent Design 66 References 73 II Architecture and the Ultimate 76 Truth, Beauty, and the Reflection of God: John Ruskin’s Seven Lamps of Architecture and The Stones of Venice as Palimpsests for Contemporary ArchitectureMark R. Hall 78 Introduction 78 The Seven Lamps of Architecture 79 Ruskin and The Stones of Venice 81 Review of Ruskin's Reputation 87 Ruskin's Relevance to Contemporary Architecture 89 Architecture as a Palimpsest 92 Peter Eisenman and The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe 95 Daniel Libeskind and His Architecture 99 References 107 III Software Engineering and Human Agency 110 Using Turing Oracles in Cognitive Models of Problem-SolvingJonathan Bartlett 112 Broad Views of Cognition and Their Historic Consequences in Cognitive Modeling 112 A Primer on Computability and Incomputability 114 The Halting Problem 117 Turing Oracles as Solutions for Incomputable Problems 121 Partial Solutions to Incomputable Functions Using Additional Axioms 122 Towards Defining a Turing Oracle for Modeling Human Problem-Solving on Insight Problems 123 Human Solutions to the Halting Problem 124 An Oracle for Insight Problems 126 Problems and Directions 128 Generalizing the Oracle Method 129 Applications 130 Final Considerations 131 References 133 Calculating Software Complexity Using the Halting ProblemJonathan Bartlett 136 Complexity Metrics in Software 136 A Brief History of Software Complexity Metrics 137 Deeper Difficulties in Software 137 The Halting Problem as an Insight Problem 138 Using the Halting Problem to Measure Software Complexity 139 Adding Axioms to Minimize Insight 140 Using the Metric 142 Further Considerations 142 References 143 Algorithmic Specified ComplexityWinston Ewert, William A. Dembski, and Robert J. Marks II 144 Introduction 144 Method 147 Examples 150 Objections 160 Acknowledgements 162 References 163 Complex Specified Information (CSI) CollectingEric Holloway 166 Introduction 166 Problem Description 167 Background 167 Approach 169 Implementation 169 Results and Conclusion 173 Theoretical Objections 173 Future Work 176 References 178 IV The Engineering of Life 180 Developing Insights into the Design of the Simplest Self-Replicator and Its Complexity: Part 1—Developing a Functional Model for the Simplest Self-ReplicatorArminius Mignea 182 Introduction 182 The Two Phases of Self-Replication 184 Identifying SSR Capabilities as Specific Functions 185 Additional SSR Functions 190 The Higher Level SSR functions 194 The Type and Nature of SSR Components 196 The SSR and Its Information Catalogs 198 Conclusion 199 Developing Insights into the Design of the Simplest Self-Replicator and Its Complexity: Part 2—Evaluating the Complexity of a Concrete Implementation of an Artificial SSRArminius Mignea 200 The Three Closure Requirements as the Basis of an Autonomous SSR 201 The Core Approach to Cloning 201 The Material Basis of the SSR 204 The Type and Nature of SSR Components 205 Derived Design Requirements 206 The Most Significant Challenges for the Design and Implementation of an Artificial SSR 209 The Emerging Image of the Artificial SSR 214 A Brief Survey of Attempts to Build Artificial Self-Replicators 216 Simplifying Assumptions for the Design and Construction of an SSR 221 Conclusion 222 References 224 Developing Insights into the Design of the Simplest Self-Replicator and Its Complexity: Part 3—The Metaphysics of an Artificial SSR and the Origin of Life ProblemArminius Mignea 226 The Insights into the Design of the SSR, Its Complexity, and the Origin of Life 226 From the Physics to the Metaphysics of the SSRs 230 About the Authors 234 Editors and Organizers 234 Primary Authors 236 Additional Authors 237 Index 239