Endless mysteries lurk in the depths of space. To pare the list down to eight—now, there’s a challenge

The BBC News insulted Mozart, too, but later admitted that the experimental music eventually ground down to a monotonous stasis that needed some kind of unspecified, unobserved breakthrough (punctuated equilibria?) to evolve further: “Of course it never slows down forever, it never just stays there,” Leroi said in attempt to rescue his hopes from observation.  “Eventually you will get another burst of evolution as something new comes along and breaks through a boundary, and we think that will happen here too.”

The experiment clearly has nothing to do with Darwinian natural selection, but everything to do with artificial selection (i.e., intelligent design).  There’s nothing natural about it.  It’s like artificial breeding of chickens, dogs or cows to get what a human mind desires.  It doesn’t matter if the artificial selector involves one or a hundred people: it’s still being selected by minds having a purpose, not by an unguided, impersonal, random process like Darwin envisioned.  Even unwashed masses can be intelligent designers.  MacCallum admits as much, stating that “market forces, consumer choice, is itself a creative force.”  He also admitted that many of the selectors were undergraduate students (that fact may or may not impress Darwin skeptics).

• The experiment clearly has nothing to do with Darwinian natural selection, but everything to do with artificial selection (i.e., intelligent design).  There’s nothing natural about it.  It’s like artificial breeding of chickens, dogs or cows to get what a human mind desires.  It doesn’t matter if the artificial selector involves one or a hundred people: it’s still being selected by minds having a purpose, not by an unguided, impersonal, random process like Darwin envisioned.  Even unwashed masses can be intelligent designers.  MacCallum admits as much, stating that “market forces, consumer choice, is itself a creative force.”  He also admitted that many of the selectors were undergraduate students (that fact may or may not impress Darwin skeptics).

Calling this sound “music,” furthermore, is dubious.  It consists of a conglomeration of repetitive loops, lacking the structure and serial organization of a Beethoven symphony or Mozart concerto.  It might be likened to group selection of the most pleasing wind chimes arranged in a hodgepodge that is the “least ugly” among a random set.  There is no sonata form, no development, no recapitulation — no form whatsoever.

• Calling this sound “music,” furthermore, is dubious.  It consists of a conglomeration of repetitive loops, lacking the structure and serial organization of a Beethoven symphony or Mozart concerto.  It might be likened to group selection of the most pleasing wind chimes arranged in a hodgepodge that is the “least ugly” among a random set.  There is no sonata form, no development, no recapitulation — no form whatsoever.

Another project by a different composer produced intelligently-designed music a different way.  This time it was Michael Blake, who composed a fugue-like composition based on the Golden Ratio.  This ratio (1.6180339887…) known to be ubiquitous in nature and aesthetically pleasing to the eye, is also pleasing to the ear.  In another article on New Scientist by another reporter, Jacob Aron, an embedded music video shows Blake performing his work.  See a write-up on Evolution News & Views about the design implications of Blake’s project.  For a stunning animation about how the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Series are related, and how they turn up in phenomena as diverse as sunflowers and nautilus shells, click here (intelligently-designed music track included).

• Another project by a different composer produced intelligently-designed music a different way.  This time it was Michael Blake, who composed a fugue-like composition based on the Golden Ratio.  This ratio (1.6180339887…) known to be ubiquitous in nature and aesthetically pleasing to the eye, is also pleasing to the ear.  In another article on New Scientist by another reporter, Jacob Aron, an embedded music video shows Blake performing his work.  See a write-up on Evolution News & Views about the design implications of Blake’s project.  For a stunning animation about how the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Series are related, and how they turn up in phenomena as diverse as sunflowers and nautilus shells, click here (intelligently-designed music track included).

How can Darwin keep taking credit for intelligent design?  Darwin’s theory is the antithesis of ID.  William Dembski showed clearly in No Free Lunch that no evolutionary algorithm is superior to blind search once external information is identified and excluded from the algorithm.  The DarwinTunes scientists and reporters prove they understand neither music nor Darwinism.  They don’t understand the difference between natural and artificial selection.  They don’t understand that “reproduction” of selected sound loops bears little if any relationship to biological reproduction.  And the results occur within a day under mental selection– not over millions of years.

• How can Darwin keep taking credit for intelligent design?  Darwin’s theory is the antithesis of ID.  William Dembski showed clearly in No Free Lunch that no evolutionary algorithm is superior to blind search once external information is identified and excluded from the algorithm.  The DarwinTunes scientists and reporters prove they understand neither music nor Darwinism.  They don’t understand the difference between natural and artificial selection.  They don’t understand that “reproduction” of selected sound loops bears little if any relationship to biological reproduction.  And the results occur within a day under mental selection– not over millions of years.