Winston Ewert

Senior Fellow, Senior Research Scientist, Software Engineer

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 and a Senior Fellow of the Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence.

Archives

Dr. Winston Ewert: The Limits of Artificial Intelligence

Pat Flynn and Winston Ewert
February 20, 2025
On this episode of Mind Matters News, guest host Pat Flynn concludes a conversation with Dr. Winston Ewert about his contribution to the recent volume Minding the Brain. This segment explores the implications of the view that human cognition can be reduced to a sophisticated algorithm, as Ewert argues. Ewert contends that an algorithm can only construct an algorithm less sophisticated than itself, based on the limitations of the halting problem in computer science. This poses challenges for views like the “singularity” hypothesis that predict exponentially increasing artificial intelligence. Ewert’s argument suggests there are limits to how intelligent an artificial intelligence can become, and that something beyond an algorithm must be responsible for …

Dr. Winston Ewert: The Human Mind’s Sophisticated Algorithm And Its Implications

Pat Flynn and Winston Ewert
February 13, 2025
On this episode of Mind Matters News, guest host Pat Flynn begins a conversation with Dr. Winston Ewert about Ewert’s chapter in the recent 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 …

An Argument from Ignorance? 

William A. Dembski and Winston Ewert
November 17, 2023
Richard Dawkins, better than anyone, has publicly championed the dogma that Darwinian pathways can and must always exist for any biological system.

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. Dr. Ewert describes his research on the “dependency graph of life.” This is an alternate explanation for the tree of life, which he says fits the data better than the usual answer, common descent. …

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 …

Why Digital Cambrian Explosions Fizzle … Or Fake It

Winston Ewert
June 7, 2017
This episode of ID the Future features a follow-up interview with Winston Ewert, co-author of An Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics. Ewert and host Ray Bohlin dive deeper into the sometimes surreal world of computer evolution simulations. And they take a closer look at attempts to simulate one of biology’s great mysteries, the Cambrian Explosion. …

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 III: Measuring Meaning in Images

Winston Ewert
February 10, 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. In this, the third and final podcast of the series, Dr. Winston Ewert explains the role of context in measuring meaning in images. A non-humanoid gelatinous alien would assign no meaning to the faces on Mount Rushmore if the alien had never before seen a humanoid. Humans, on the other hand, have the context of familiarity with human heads and historical figures that allow them to assxign high algorithmic specified complexity when viewing Mount Rushmore. Information theoretic-based algorithmic specified complexity …

Algorithmic Specified Complexity Part II: Application to Conway’s Game of Life

Winston Ewert
February 8, 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 second of three segments. Conway’s Game of Life is played on a rectangular grid. Cells live or die depending on the cells that surround them. Hobbyists have designed highly complex and interesting patterns using Conway’s four simple rules of birth, death and survival. Patterns include oscillators, spaceships and glider guns. Dr. Winston Ewert explains how the theory of algorithmic specified complexity can be applied to measure, in bits, the degree to which these cellular automata life forms are …

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. Dr. Winston Ewert, a Senior Research Scientist at both Biologic Institute and the Evolutionary Informatics lab, discusses the mathematical foundation for why we know Mount Rushmore is designed and Mount Fuji isn’t. The mathematical theory of algorithmic specified complexity is introduced and illustrated. A single complex snowflake, for example, displays essentially zero algorithmic specified complexity whereas two identical snowflakes earns a high algorithmic specified …