Winston Ewert

Winston Ewert is a software engineer and intelligent design researcher. He received his PhD from Baylor University in electrical and computer engineering. He specializes in computer simulations of evolution, genomic design patterns, and information theory. A Google alum, he is a Senior Research Scientist at Biologic Institute, a Senior Fellow of the Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence, and a Senior Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture.

Archives

Origin of Life: The Fundamental Challenge

_{Winston Ewert
September 6, 2026}

But what if instead of keyboards, the familiar monkeys were drawing Scrabble tiles?

Evolutionary Origin of Information: The Problem of Robustness

_{Winston Ewert
September 4, 2026}

It is surprising to me that the authors of these studies did not consider it more of a priority to understand the mechanics of robustness.

Evolution of New Genes: The Big “If”

_{Winston Ewert
September 3, 2026}

If the theory can explain the evolution of new genes then evolution can be a successful explanation.

Evolutionary Models Reward Complexity for Complexity’s Sake

_{Winston Ewert
September 2, 2026}

But then the complexity is not interesting. Crucially, it’s not really information.

Orchids, Moths, and (Supposed) Evolutionary Predictions

_{Winston Ewert
August 26, 2026}

What Adami has actually done is taken a prediction that has nothing to do with evolution and attribute it to evolutionary theory.

Origin of Biological Information? Nope, Just Its Recycling

_{Winston Ewert
August 25, 2026}

Followers of the debate between intelligent design and Darwinian evolution will be familiar with Christoph Adami's example.

Avida and Making Eye Evolution Seem Plausible

_{Winston Ewert
August 24, 2026}

Adami says, “it is hard not to see the parallels to other evolutionary innovations, for example the co-option of the existing crystallin protein in the eye.”

Why AI and Darwinian Theory Share the Same Computational Limits

_{Winston Ewert
August 21, 2026}

Today’s episode of ID The Future comes from our sister podcast Mind Matters News, a production of Discovery Institute's Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. On this episode of Mind Matters News, guest host Pat Flynn welcomes Dr. Winston Ewert to the show to discuss Ewert’s chapter in the volume Minding the Brain. In his contribution, titled “The Human Mind’s Sophisticated Algorithm and Its Implications,” Dr. Ewert argues that the human mind’s problem-solving cognition can be modeled as a sophisticated algorithm. Ewert explains that any cognitive task can be expressed as a version of the halting problem from computer science, where an algorithm either halts or continues infinitely. He suggests that humans are able to solve a large and sophisticated subset of these problems, but are limited in the same way that no algorithm can solve all halting problems. Ewert contends that this algorithmic view of human cognition has implications that challenge reductive materialist and neo-Darwinian views, despite resistance from some thinkers who believe human abilities transcend any algorithm.

Simulations Point to Design: Learning from the History of Artificial Life

_{Winston Ewert
August 19, 2026}

Once you introduce step-by-step guidance, you are no longer simulating an evolutionary process.

Lessons from Cooked Amoebas: The Dallinger Experiment

_{Winston Ewert
August 18, 2026}

Christoph Adami discusses work by Reverend William Dallinger, a contemporary of Charles Darwin.

Evolution of Biological Information: Lizards and a “New” Organ

_{Winston Ewert
August 5, 2026}

The first experiment that Christoph Adami discusses is one where scientists transported lizards from one island to another.

Evolution of Biological Information: HIV Evolution

_{Winston Ewert
July 29, 2026}

What Christoph Adami’s results actually show is that when HIV is subjected to the protease inhibitors, the sequence variability increases.

Evolution of Biological Information: The Line of Descent

_{Winston Ewert
July 28, 2026}

In the end, Christoph Adami’s method has not shown anything about the entropy or information content of ancestral sequences.

Evolution of Biological Information: Maxwell’s Demon

_{Winston Ewert
July 21, 2026}

Maxwell’s demon is a hypothetical entity that can increase the energy in a compartment by choosing to admit or exclude incoming particles based on speed.

Evolution of Biological Information: The Definition of Information

_{Winston Ewert
July 17, 2026}

Whether the driveway is wet provides information about whether it rained. If the driveway is dry, it certainly has not rained.

Technological Evolution: Accidentally Demonstrating the Limits of Evolution

_{Winston Ewert
July 16, 2026}

While economist Brian Arthur models the development of technology, he refers to it as the “evolution” of technology.

Modularity: Insufficient for and Unexplained by Evolution

_{Winston Ewert
July 15, 2026}

The fundamental problem with this analysis is that sexual reproduction does not make anything modular.

Can Formless Matter Exist? A Pitfall in Reading Biblical Texts

_{Winston Ewert
March 19, 2026}

The solution is to go back to the source and follow the text to see what it actually says.

Is Matter Conserved? Ancient and Modern Views

_{Winston Ewert
March 12, 2026}

Christians accepted that the principle, nothing comes from nothing, was true for processes in nature. God, however, was not bound by this limitation.

Using Historical Reasoning to Navigate Today’s Scientific Debates

_{Winston Ewert
March 11, 2026}

The relationship between Christianity and science is much older and richer than you might think. What can we learn about today’s scientific debates by studying that history? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes a two-part conversation with software engineer and intelligent design researcher Winston Ewert about his new book The Heavens, The Waters, and the Partridge, an exploration of the interaction between Christianity and science before modern science. This half of the conversation dives into the rich history of how early Christian thinkers engaged with the scientific consensus of their time. By exploring historical case studies such as the supposed immutability of the heavens and the ancient belief that matter is eternally conserved, Ewert shows us how early Christian thinkers often pushed back against prevailing Greek philosophies to uphold biblical doctrines like creatio ex nihilo. The examples highlight that the dialogue between faith and science is a centuries-old tradition centered on understanding order, purpose, and the inherent limits of scientific inquiry. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.