Order vs. Randomness

[Mudhammam]

But again, you don't really know whether or not the "randomness" is truly random.

Sure, I can grant that. But these are just descriptions, words to distinguish between our perceptions of what appears orderly and what appears random. What if it is both... or neither (if that is even intelligible in any fathomable way)? Even if the universe is fundamentally ordered, however, this is not suggestive, in my mind, of intelligence, any more than hurricanes, mountains, gravity, or atoms would be "ordered" but are not intelligent!

Well, you know that the act of searching for an answer to such as question would be obviously impossible without the existence of our intelligent, order-seeking brains.

I'm with you there.

But if reality was fundamentally non-intelligent, then it is simply not conceivable to me that we this "non-intelligent" thing would be able to transform its random behavior into order in such a way that some parts of it would eventually become orderly and "intelligent" enough to start contemplating about its own nature, without possessing any amount of intelligence itself. This idea is just too paradoxical to be true.

But let's break that down to a real-life example. Take an atom. Is an atom intelligent? Not in any way that I can imagine, unless by intelligence we are applying the term to literally everything we see! Perhaps it is orderly though. Are two atoms, chemically bonded, intelligent? Still, no. But orderly? Even more so than one, at least! I think you would agree. But what about a trillion atoms, bonded to form molecules and subsequently nerve cells. Is a nerve cell intelligent? Again, no. But definitely ordered! But how about 10 billion nerve cells that interact to form something like conscious awareness? Now we're talking intelligence! Take my example and apply it to quantum particles and waves, or even the laws of physics themselves. It might make sense to call these ordered but... does it make sense to call these things intelligent? If not, why do their preceding causes need to be?

I think you raise a very interesting philosophical question about order vs. randomness and I don't expect it to be resolved anytime soon. But that's just my two cents.