Specified Complexity
Specified complexity is William Dembski's dual-pronged criterion for objectively detecting the effects of certain types of intelligent activity without first hand evidence of the cause of the event in question. Dembski's notion of specified complexity is a rigorous theoretical formulation of the everyday distinction we make between natural events (i.e. natural death, naturally occuring rock formations) and events with intelligent causes (i.e. murder, Mount Rushmore).
Specified complexity consists of two important components, both of which are essential for making reliable design inferences. The first component is the criterion of complexity or improbability. In order for an event to meet the standards of Dembski's theoretical notion of specified complexity, the probability of its happening must be lower than the Universal Probability Bound which Dembski sets at one chance in 10^150 possibilities.
The second component in the notion of specified complexity is the criterion of specificity. The idea behind specificity is that not only must an event be unlikely (complex), it must also conform to an independently given, detachable pattern. Specification is like drawing a target on a wall and then shooting the arrow. Without the specification criterion, we'd be shooting the arrow and then drawing the target around it after the fact.
Criticisms of Dembski's notion of specified complexity often target the notion of specification. Critics argue that it is a subjective concept, highly dependent on the observer's background knowledge and therefore not reliable as a scientific criterion.
Additional criticisms include the following:
1. Too anthropocentric: it requires human-like intelligences
2. Limited application: more easily applied to events for which we already know the causes
3. Requires the elimination of all (known) random and lawlike causes
4. Determining probabilities of events involves incomplete knowledge of circumstances in which the event occurred
Book Resources On Specified ComplexityNo Free Lunch by William Dembski
TheThe Design Inference by William Dembski
Signs of Intelligence by William Dembski (ed)
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