Welcome to ID the Future, a podcast about intelligent design and evolution.

Hello, I'm Andrew McDermott. Today my guest is writer and speaker Kirk Durston, who holds a PhD in

biophysics, a master's in philosophy, and undergrad degrees

in physics and mechanical engineering.

Durston has published several papers in peer-reviewed science and philosophy journals.

Since the 1980s, he has studied the possibility that meaningful information in general

and genetic information specifically is the fingerprint of intelligence. His PhD work involved developing a method

to identify and measure functional information in bio polymer sequences and to see what that information does in terms of protein structure.

One of his current research projects involves working with a team of scientists

to develop software that can help us better understand the sub-molecular structure of proteins and how they fold.

When he's not studying protein folds, Dursden enjoys family, nature photography,

and experiencing the remote wilderness.

Kirk, thanks for joining me today.

Well, thank you for having me.

I'm glad to be here.

Absolutely.

Well, today we're kicking off a three episode series with you, exploring a series you recently wrote actually, that looks at the differences between three major categories of science.

You put it as experimental, inferential, and fantastical or science fiction.

Today we'll focus on your thoughts related to experimental science.

First, can you tell us why you wrote this series? What are the big picture ideas you're trying to communicate here? Well, over the years, as I spent time in various science departments and read what people were accepting as true in the general public sphere,

I had serious reservations about a lot of the things that people just

accept as fact, the lay person on the street, so to speak. But the question was, what was it about 21st century science that disturbed me or that I found

...