Engines of ? , machine metaphors and visual rhetoric

Gunnar E. Höst and Gustav Bohlin

Linköping University Post Print

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Original Publication: Gunnar E. Höst and Gustav Bohlin, Engines of creationism? Intelligent design, machine metaphors and visual rhetoric, 2015, Leonardo: Journal of the International Society for the Arts, and Technology, (48), 1, 80-81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/LEON_a_00905 Copyright: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (MIT Press): Arts & Humanities Titles etc http://mitpress.mit.edu/main/home/default.asp?sid=19E29805-C0A0-4642-8ECD- BACF5ADFF807

Postprint available at: Linköping University Electronic Press http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-113512

ENGINES OF CREATIONISM? - the sub-microscopic world, it is difficult complexity”, which means that if one INTELLIGENT DESIGN, to distinguish between scientific content part is removed the flagellum would MACHINE METAPHORS AND and pure design choices. This problem is cease functioning. Behe argues that VISUAL RHETORIC further compounded by the capacity of cannot arise Gunnar E. Höst, Department of modern computer graphic technologies through evolution since the individual and Technology, Linköping University, to render images and animations of cells parts are considered useless unless they Sweden E-mail: . and molecules that give the impression are introduced as a whole [7]. of photorealism. According to Jens Kjeldsen, the Gustav Bohlin, Department of Science Visual representations of molecular rhetorical device called evidentia, used and Technology, Linköping University, entities can be seen as analogical by orators to persuade through a vivid Sweden E-mail: . mappings, where the unfamiliar domain and detailed presentation, is an important of a scientific concept is organized in factor in visual rhetoric. In the first two Submitted: relation to the familiar domain of visual examples, we point out some of the objects. According to structure mapping rhetorical qualities that support evidentia Abstract theory, such comparisons typically map in images according to Kjeldsen [8]. The Machine metaphors are ubiquitous in the molecular the objects and the relations between first example, where the bacterial sciences. In addition to their use by scientists, educators and popularizers of science, they have objects from one domain to another, but flagellum is introduced, invokes a sense been promoted intensively by the Intelligent Design not necessarily the attributes of the of presence by letting the viewer share a (ID) movement in arguments for the necessity of a objects [4]. For example, a red ‘ball’ crucial experience with professor Behe. -like designer to account for the complexities of life at the molecular level. We have investigated the typically indicates an oxygen atom in a While showing a schematic image of a visual rhetoric employed in a movie by ID depiction of a water molecule, while two flagellum in a textbook [9], Behe proponents, with particular emphasis on machine white ‘balls’ indicate hydrogen atoms. describes his response: metaphors. After presenting examples, we argue that science communicators could reduce the Such an image is intended to convey the Behe: I remember that the first time I persuasive impact of ID visual rhetoric based on spatial relations between atoms of looked into a biochemistry textbook and machine metaphors by emphasizing that self- assembly is fundamental to molecular complexes. different types in the scientific concept I saw a drawing of something called a of H2O. The actual choice of colors for bacterial flagellum, with all of its parts, Introduction the balls in the visual model, however, is with all of its glory, it had a propeller, a In his visionary work “Engines of based solely on convention. hook region and a drive shaft and a Creation”, Eric Drexler ponders the Similar analogical reasoning applies to motor and so on. I looked at that and potentials of an industrial machine world machine metaphors in science. The said that “that is an outboard motor, of extreme miniaturization [1]. The use Oxford English Dictionary definition of that’s designed”, you know, that’s no of such machine metaphors to describe machine is “an apparatus using chance assemblage of parts. (15:55– aspects of molecular structure and mechanical power and having several 16:22) function are commonplace in the parts, each with a definite function and The sense of presence is tightly scientific literature. For example, noting together performing a particular task”. coupled with realism and indexical the highly coordinated moving parts in Such a definition allows protein documentation, which is strengthened in certain molecular complexes, Bruce assemblies to be compared with the movie by linking to conventional Alberts suggested that analysis methods machines at the human scale, as scientific representations. In the second from engineering may help understand suggested by Alberts. However, the fact example, an electron micrograph, very their function [2]. Machine metaphors that ordinary machines have been similar to Fig 1A, is positioned at the have also been heavily used by designed is irrelevant to Alberts’ use of end of a computer-rendered cell: proponents of Intelligent Design (ID) in machine metaphors. The molecular Narrator: ...the molecular motors that their arguments against evolutionary machines described in Drexler’s drive bacteria through liquid, each theory. They argue that components of nanotechnology also fit the definition depend upon a system of intricately cells show evidence of design and above, but unlike Alberts’ they are arranged mechanical parts. These parts therefore require a designer (following a explicitly designed. Science education come into focus, when portions of a cell tradition that began with William S. has shown that machine are magnified 50 000 times. Biochemists Paley). We have investigated a movie metaphors are sometimes interpreted too have used electron micrographs like this produced by ID proponents to literally [5]. Some authors even argue one, to identify the parts and three- understand how machine metaphors are against using machine metaphors at all, dimensional structure of the flagellar used rhetorically to support ID not least because of their use by ID motor. In the process, they have revealed arguments [3]. proponents [6]. a marvel of engineering on a miniaturized scale. (16:25–17:00) Subsequently, a graphically rendered Metaphors and visual Machine metaphors in the visual rhetoric of Intelligent Design model of the flagellum with a distinctly representations of molecules machine-like appearance is built up to Molecules are too small to be observed We present examples of the use of machine metaphors in ID visual rhetoric match the structure of the flagellum without powerful imaging technologies, depicted by the micrograph [10]. The act and visual representations are therefore in the movie “Unlocking the Mystery of Life”. Our examples concern bacterial of superposing the computer-rendered crucial for communicating the molecular animation on a scientific image, which world. Artists and designers of such flagella, large protein complexes that allow some bacteria to ‘swim’. ID has an indexical relation to the depicted visual representations must select and structure, may foster the audience’s trust transform the available scientific data, proponent claims that the flagellum exhibits “irreducible in the accuracy of the animation and but since we lack direct experiences of authority of the movie. In the third example, the movie supports a claim that not only the flagellar structure, but also its assembly, is irreducibly complex, by extending the machine metaphor to also include machine assembly. Here, the metaphor ‘formation of a flagellum is like building a house’ is introduced. Visually, a blueprint and an animation that show the different stages of erecting a house is followed by an animation depicting a stepwise build-up of a flagellum. Just like building a house, the different parts of the flagellum need to be assembled in a tightly regulated and precise sequence, Fig. 1. A) Composite electron micrograph of parts of bacterial flagellum. (© David which requires a complex system of DeRosier.) B) RMS Titanic’s propeller shaft installation. (Photo © Anonymous, 1911.) machines to coordinate the assembly instructions, according to the movie’s is more like the molecular assembly lines References and Notes narration. ID proponent Paul Nelson envisioned by Eric Drexler, in which 1. K. Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation: The expands on this: machines called ‘assemblers’ perform Coming Era of Nanotechnology (New York: Nelson: ...you see in order to construct the detailed manual assembly of Anchor Press, 1986). that flagellar mechanism, or tens of nanoscale objects, than the processes of 2. Bruce Alberts, “The Cell as a Collection of thousands of other such mechanisms in self-assembly that underlie formation of Protein Machines: Preparing the Next Generation of Molecular Biologists,” Cell 92, (February 1998), the cell, you require other machines to biological molecular complexes. Another 291-294. regulate the assembly of these structures, peculiarity is the claim that flagellar 3. Stephen C. Meyer and W. Peter Allen, Unlocking and those machines themselves require assembly requires special machines the Mystery of Life (2002), Illustra Media, film. machines for their assembly. (27:50– which, in turn, require more machines. It 4. Dedre Gentner, “Structure-Mapping: A 28:05) is not specified which components of the Theoretical Framework for Analogy,” Cognitive It is not shown how the pieces of the cell this refers to, but it could be Science 7, (1983), pp. 155-170. house come together or how the construed to imply an infinite regress. 5. Mari Stadig Degerman, Caroline Larsson and Jan components of the flagellum are Together with the implicit ‘molecular Anward, “When metaphors come to life – at the interface of external representations, molecular assembled. Thus, viewers must ‘fill in’ workers’ analogy described above, this phenomena, and student learning,” International the missing workers who build the house may lead viewers to interpret the Journal of Environmental & Science Education 7, (cf. Fig 1B). Similarly, a viewer may message to be that the actual assembly of No. 4 (October 2012) pp. 563-580. assume that analogical implicit the flagellum, rather than evolution of 6. and Maarten Boudry, “Why ‘molecular workers’ actually build the the assembly pathway, is impossible Machine-Information Metaphors are Bad for Science and Science Education,” Science & flagellum, especially given the movie’s without intelligent intervention. Education 20, No. 5-6 (May 2011), pp. 453-471. claim that special machines are needed With regard to ID, Niall Shanks has 7. Michael J. Behe, Darwin’s Black Box: The for assembly. After all, if the message is pointed out that self-organization and Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. (New York: that machines require a designer, it may self-assembly are examples of natural Simon and Schuster, 2006). seem reasonable to also expect builders. causal mechanisms that can account for 8. Jens E. Kjeldsen, “Billeders retorik (The rhetoric complexity and organization in complex of images),” in Hanne Roer and Marie Lund Klujeff, eds., Retorikkens aktualitet (København: Breaking point of the machine systems [12]. The capacity for self- Hans Reitzels, 2009). assembly, that is, a spontaneous metaphor: Who builds the 9. The textbook page shown is fabricated, with a machine? formation of ordered structures resulting schematic image of a flagellum superposed onto from random interactions between the page 69 of [7]. The visual rhetoric of the movie supports components [13], indicates the a literal interpretation of the machine 10. Paul J. Wendel, “Mechanical Metaphors in extraordinary differences between Unlocking The Mystery of Life ,” Paper presented metaphor, in which parts of cells are molecular machines and the machines at the Ninth International History, , and equated with machines. Discrepancies in Science Teaching Conference , University of we know from everyday experience. the ID message may then be expected to Calgary , Alberta, Canada , (June 2007). Doren Recker has suggested that the arise where molecular machines differ 11. Mark Perakh, “Flagella Myths. How Intelligent machine metaphor is persuasive because Design Proponents Created the Myth that Bacteria from machines that we know from daily it seems to make intuitive sense, as long look like Man-made Machines,” Skeptic 14, No. 3 life. In addition to an exaggerated (2008). as we do not ‘look again’ [14]. Given machine-likeness [11], we suggest that that machine metaphors are emphasized 12. Niall Shanks, God, the Devil, and Darwin: A the process of machine assembly may be critique of Intelligent Design Theory (New York, in the rhetoric used in ID, we suggest another such discrepancy. USA: Oxford University Press, 2004). that the flaws in the ID argument may be The formation of a flagellum is 13. George M. Whitesides and Bartosz Grzybowski, exposed by highlighting the breakdown undoubtedly complex. However, the “Self-assembly at all Scales,” Science 295, No. of the machine metaphor in the random 5564 (March 2002), pp. 2418-2421. overall impression conveyed by the nature of molecular self-assembly. 14. Doren Recker, “How to Confuse Organisms movie is that it requires a level of with Mousetraps: Machine Metaphors and detailed control that is similar to that Acknowledgements Intelligent Design,” Zygon 45, No. 3 (September required for humans to assemble 2010) pp. 647-664. Grants 2011-5569 and 2012-5344 from the Swedish macroscopic technological artifacts. This Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) supported this work.