In every case where a machine's origin can be determined, it is the result
of intelligent agency. (A machine is a device for transmitting or
modifying force or energy.) Out of billions of observations, there are no
exceptions. It should be considered a law of nature that machines,
including those in living organisms, have an intelligent cause.
The claim is an argument by analogy: Life is like man-made objects in
containing machines, therefore it is like man-made objects in having an
intelligent cause. It suffers the weaknesses of all arguments by
analogy. In particular, it ignores dissimilarities between
life and design, and the similarity has questionable relevance to
intelligence.
If the argument were valid, it could equally be argued that, in every
case where a machine's origin can be determined, the machine is made by
humans, and therefore all life is man-made.
Many machines occur in nature without the involvement of intelligence
or, indeed, of any kind of life. The following list is far from
exhaustive.
Inclined planes, perhaps the simplest type of machine, are
ubiquitous on earth. Functions include causing waves to break and
making it easier for animals to climb heights.
Ice wedges, another form of wedge, contribute significantly to
erosion.
Molecular bonds function as springs as they transmit and distribute
forces through materials.
Thunder clouds generate electrical forces.
The earth as a whole is a dynamo, converting mechanical motion of
convection into a magnetic field.
Geysers produce eruptions which are predictable and fairly regular.
If Paley's watch can be considered a machine, surely Yellowstone's
Old Faithful is a machine, too, but I have never heard any
suggestion that it is designed.
Other machines are created by life but not by intelligence. Genetic
algorithms design or help to design many kinds of machines, from
antennae to jet engines (Marczyk 2004). One may attempt to argue that
items designed by a genetic algorithm inherit the intelligent agency of
the algorithm's designer, but this misses the point that no human
mental activity directs the immediate operation of the algorithm. In
some cases, for example in some electronic circuits, the
algorithmically-designed results show no resemblance to their
human-designed versions, and indeed, cannot be explained via human
design methods (Koza et al. 2003).
Unintelligent animals also create a wide variety of machines, such as
the orb weaver's spider webs, the ant lion's pit traps, and
air-conditioned termite nests. Again, one may appeal that the designer
of the designer might be intelligent, but that raises the possibility
that maybe intelligence starts with the designer of the designer of the
designer, or even further back.
