I Object. This is an explanation. Shorter is better, IMO.:mrgreen:

Babel Fish independently evolved to be intelligent, then bio-engineered themselves for altruistic reasons thus sacrificing their entire species for a higher cause.

Provoking Thought

If you want, I'm willing to expand the contest to include evolutionary scenarios of dragons. That will make Salim happy. But then Nick might not want to judge those. So Salim will have to be the judge for dragon evolution.

Nick Matzke has often referred to the Babel Fish as an example of a biological organism that couldn't have evolved without intelligent design, and should we ever present him with one, he would accept ID.

I find that extremely confusing. Conversely, can Nick Matzke show me an example of a biological organism that could have evolved without an intelligently designed evolutionary algorithm? Of course, this would involve proving that information processing systems and the resulting programs and design space will generate itself from any ol' accidentally existing set of law and matter. But, alas, according to science this has (or will — to keep with the materialistic faith) been done.

And, as Mike Gene has shown above, a cup of deep time, a pinch of "scientific" imagination, and ongoing accidents to keep the pot at a boil (don't forget to stir occasionally) can create anything — including information processors, consciousness, marvels of engineering, consious intelligent beings to (intelligenty or is it untintelligently) re-create the process, and of course Babel fish.

I wonder what's next on evolution's list — create God? Ah, why not. Evolution does everything else so well. P.S. "well" is subjective so is not to be taken as if it actually means anything.

I wonder why you can't keep those IDiots happy with just "doing science!?!?!?!?!"

For those who don't know, here is the follow-up to the Babel Fish story…

"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves that you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. Q.E.D."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

link

I was temped to think up an evolutionary argument to something like a Babel Fish. A simple answer would be Babel Fish independently evolved to be intelligent, then bio-engineered themselves for alteristic reasons thus sacrificing their entire species for a higher cause.

While these are cute fictional stories, let me try to address the issue I think you are trying to bring up.

What kind of evidence would it take to inductively show something exists that can't be directly and empirically tested?

I give the example of the Pythagoreans and irrational numbers. It looks like we will be dicussing this in other threads.

Provoking Thought

Disclaimer: My commenting on TT should not be construed as an agreement the About Us statement, "We think these concepts have real potential to generate insights about our reality that are being drowned out by political advocacy from both sides. We hope this blog will provide a small voice that helps rectify this situation." isn't misleading.

A dragon (either fire-breathing or flying) would be an excellent example of a creature that could not possibly have evolved.

Whoa, salim. One contest at a time. We'll get to the evolution of dragons contest next, if you please. Meanwhile, would you like to make an entry for this contest?

Well one day, quite by chance, a proto-carrier was poking at a proto-Babel fish and it rolled up as usual. But the proto-carrier decided to pick up the ball-like fish by the thorn and begin to play with it. One thing led to another and the proto-carrier eventually stuck the fleshy ball in its ear. The proto-carrier immediately noticed the silence. A removable ear plug was born.

The proto-carrier shared his finding with other members of the pack and this eventually led to a greatly enhanced rate of successfully hunting the Screeching Rabbit. A symbiosis formed, as a population of proto-Babel fish spent more and more time safely protected in the ear canals of the proto-carriers. And a population of proto-carriers was much more successful at hunting the nutritious Screeching Rabbit.

Much later on, a proto-Babel fish underwent a mutation that allowed it to begin tapping into the unconscious mental frequencies of other beings. This caused it to excrete small telepathic signals to the proto-carrier, who, thanks to all that Rabbit meat, had brains enriched with vitamin Z40. This vitamin coincidently interacted with the telepathic blips in a synergistic fashion, leading to further enhancement of synaptic development and brain evolution. The rest is just gradual Darwinian evolution, as a selection pressure transformed the ear plug into a hearing aid, then into a universal translator. This evolution led to the evolution of intelligent beings, who then invented laser guns to kill Screeching Rabbits from a distance.

Off to go find out if I now dream about this.

I'm not sure what Nick had in mind here… this is the first I've heard of it. As for me, I might be inclined to accept the claims of ID if I were presented with a far less exotic organism… a showtune-singing frog perhaps.