Impossibility Theory, An Advance over Mere Indeterminacy: By Werner Fredsenberg

Previously I have proved that life cannot have evolved. Today I will prove that life cannot exist.
Let us begin with Samuel Johnson’s response when asked whether we have free will. He replied that all theory holds that we do not, all experience that we do. A similar paradox occurs in the realm of Impossibility Theory. Many things occur in biology that all science says are possible, while all common sense says that they are not.
Consider the development of a barely-existent zygote into seven pounds of puzzled and alarmed baby. (‘Where the hell is this?’) Anyone familiar with Murphy’s Law knows that it isn’t possible. Half an hour with a textbook of embryology will confirm this judgement. It is a case of phenomenal complexity following phenomenal complexity building on phenomenal complexity with, almost always, no errors of consequence.
The resulting little science project enters wherever we are with a squall, the ductus arteriosus closes, the nursing instinct kicks in, and the interloper eventually grows into, God help us, a teenager (arguably the only flaw in the process).

This post was published at Lew Rockwell on February 6, 2016.