Winston Ewert

Senior Fellow, Senior Research Scientist, Software Engineer

Winston Ewert is a software engineer, intelligent design researcher, and Senior Fellow of Discovery Institute's Walter Bradley Center on Natural and Artificial Intelligence. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from Trinity Western University, a Master’s Degree from Baylor University in Computer Science, and a PhD from Baylor University in Electrical and Computer Engineering. His specializes in computer simulations of evolution, specified complexity, information theory, and the common design of genomes. He is a Senior Research Scientist at Biologic Institute, a Senior Researcher at the Evolutionary Informatics Lab, and a Fellow of the Bradley Center.

Archives

Jonathan Wells and Winston Ewert at the CSC Summer Seminar

Winston Ewert
August 28, 2019
This episode of ID the Future features biologist Jonathan Wells and computer scientist Winston Ewert. Dr. Wells speaks on embryo development and the current mystery of ontogenetic development, which relies on continually updating information not found in DNA.

Is the Human Mind a Computer?

As a software engineer, I'd say we need to be clear what the question is before answering it
Winston Ewert
July 24, 2019

Once we understand clearly what a computer is, we will see why consciousness is not a form of computation.

Remember the Luddites!

The Luddites became famous for breaking machinery during the Industrial Revolution. Were they entirely wrong?
Winston Ewert
January 25, 2019
People often think that the Luddites were merely anti-technology because they opposed automation during the Industrial Revolution (1760–1840). The story is more complex. As we face increasing automation today, we might want to see what we can learn from their history.

Will the Free Market Help or Hurt Us in an AI-Empowered World?

We may need new institutions, such as insurance against job obsolescence
Winston Ewert
January 18, 2019
If humans are free to experiment with new institutions, I believe we will find an excellent solution. However, there is a great danger that those who benefit from the status quo will use their influence to prevent the adoption of new institutions.

Is Technology Neutral?

Or does it change our world whether we like it or not?
Winston Ewert
October 30, 2018
People tend to be one of two minds when it comes to technology. One group views technology as directional—altering those cultures it reaches. They construct plausible narratives about how this or that technology has changed our culture. The second group views technology as neutral. They dismiss the narrative put forward by the first group, explaining that such changes are due to forces within the culture, not to technology.

Dependency Graph, Pt. 2: Winston Ewert Defends His Groundbreaking New ID Model

Winston Ewert
October 15, 2018
On this episode of ID the Future, Dr. Winston Ewert continues unpacking his new hypothesis challenging Darwin’s tree of life. Ewert is a software engineer, and his new model is inspired by the coder strategy of repurposing existing code, called modules, for different projects. Moreover, some of these modules depend on other modules, meaning you can generate a dependency graph to better understand the similarities and differences among software programs that share modules. Ewert argues that a dependency graph model better explains the pattern of similarities and differences in the history of life, better than a model of common descent by unguided evolution. As he also explains, the new model is testable in multiple ways.

Winston Ewert Unpacks his New ID Model, the Dependency Graph–Pt. 1

Winston Ewert
October 10, 2018
On this episode of ID the Future, guest host Robert J. Marks talks with Dr. Winston Ewert about Ewert’s groundbreaking new hypothesis challenging Darwin’s common descent tree of life. The new model is based on the well-established technique of repurposing software code in different software projects. Ewert, a senior researcher at Biologic and the Evolutionary Informatics Lab, describes the nested hierarchical pattern of life and how any credible theory of life’s origin and diversity must explain it. He then describes how Darwin’s basic theory fits, and doesn’t fit, the pattern, and the various ancillary mechanisms invoked to close the gaps. These patches include horizontal gene transfer, convergent evolution, and incomplete lineage sorting. Ewert then cues up what he argues is a better, more elegant hypothesis, the common design hypothesis laid out in his peer-reviewed technical paper available here.

Author of New Book Tells Why Evolution Simulations … Don’t

Winston Ewert
May 1, 2017
On this episode of ID the Future, Ray Bohlin interviews Winston Ewert, Ph.D., co-author with William Dembski and Robert Marks II of the new book, An Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics. Ewert argues that Richard Dawkins’ “Methinks It is Like a Weasel” simulation doesn’t prove biological evolution and isn’t even very interesting. Ewert says there are some interesting computer evolution simulations, but he argues that they fail to model anything biologically realistic.

Algorithmic Specified Complexity Part I: Genesis

Winston Ewert
February 3, 2016
On this episode of ID The Future, Robert Marks and Winston Ewert, both of the Evolutionary Informatics Lab, discuss three of their recently published papers dealing with evolutionary informatics, algorithmic specified complexity and how information makes evolution work. This is the first of three segments.

Breaking Sticks

Winston Ewert
December 5, 2015
A large portion of post by ID critic Tom English is devoted to an example of conservation of information involving broken sticks.

The GUC Bug

Winston Ewert
December 4, 2015
ID critics Joe Felsenstein and Tom English discuss a simple greedy search algorithm, which they name the GUC (Greedy Uphill Climber) Bug.

Dr. Winston Ewert: Irreducible Complexity Remains Unrefuted

Winston Ewert
April 28, 2014
On this episode of ID the Future, Casey Luskin talks with Dr. Winston Ewert about his article that was published recently in the journal BIO-Complexity. Dr. Ewert’s paper criticizes a number of computer programs that purport to show that irreducible complexity could result from random, unguided evolution. He finds that “The prediction of irreducible complexity in computer simulations is that such systems will not generally evolve apart from intelligent aid” and this prediction “has thus far stood the test in computer models.”

Graduate Student Challenges Avida in Scientific Paper

Winston Ewert
March 1, 2010
On this episode of ID the Future, Casey Luskin interview Winston Ewert, a graduate student in computer science at Baylor University who recently co-authored a paper titled, “Evolutionary Synthesis of Nand Logic: Dissecting a Digital Organism,” in Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics. Ewert shares how reading Richard Dawkins led him to his current research in evolutionary computation and his criticisms of the Avida Simulation.