Welcome to
The Silly Design Institute
"Not a platitude"
Vision
Dedicated to the serious investigation of Silly Design in "life, the universe, and everything" (D. Adams, BA MA, and post humus honorary member).
Mission Statement
The Silly Design Institute's mission is to make Americans fully aware of both sides of the Design debate, whether they want to be or not.
We feel that both sides of the design debate need to be provided in schools and in the media, to inform the public and the students so that they can make up their own minds and not be dictated to by self-serving organizations, and to this end the Institute:
- supports research by scientists and other scholars challenging various aspects of Neo-Paleyanism;
- supports research by scientists and other scholars developing the scientific theories for investigating Silly Design;
- supports research by scientists and other scholars developing falsification tests to demonstrate the superior scientific basis of Silly Design compared to other design concepts in general and Neo-Paleyanism in particular
- encourages the media to portray Silly Design as not just a valid, but the ne plus ultra alternative to Neo-Paleyanism, whether it has been shown to be one or not
- encourages schools, colleges and universities to improve science education by teaching students more fully about the various concepts of the Design Spectrum, including the scientific weaknesses of Neo-Paleyanism.
History
The Silly Design Institute will be started as soon as we get funding, people, and a couple of chairs, a desk and a telephone, seriously.
The Theory
The Silly Design Theory (SDT, not to be confused with STD) is based on a very simple set of concepts:
- the existence of design in natural systems is obvious, whether it is a human eye, a bird wing or the flagellum of a bacteria, there is a feature with a purpose;
- the preponderance of these purposeful features in all forms of life, from simple to complex, shows that a design process is at work;
- that the debate over whether the design is the result of natural forces or the intent of some cosmic designer cannot be resolved by investigation of the designs, because the natural forces could be designed by the cosmic designer as the means to achieve the end purpose of the designs;
- that the ultimate purpose of the designs can be determined by investigation of multitudes of features to see if they more accurately reflect (a) random design, the result totally natural forces, (b) highly specific design, for some intelligent purpose, or (c) variations on a silly design, for some silly (entertainment, amusement, reality tv) purpose;
- that the design purpose, as determined by rigorous scientific investigation, will then make clear whether the designer is (a) a Natural Nothing (NaNo), (b) an Intelligent Designer (IDr) or (c) a Cosmic Imp (CImp), and that this will then finally resolve whether there is or is not a designer as well as the nature of that designer: a metaphysical two-fer.
The Hypothesis to be tested, therefore, is that "life, the universe, and everything" show evidence of Silly Design (SD).
To accomplish this task there are several parameters that will be used to differentiate the different design possibilities. These include:
- SI - the Silliness Index - for comparing the relative silliness of different features, the higher the SI the higher the probability of Silly Design
- IC - Impossibility Content - a feature that is not consistent with the rest of the organism, has no discernable purpose and no possible natural need, finding an IC component would be de facto discovery of a Silly Design feature.
We expect more to be developed as the scientific effort to determine Silly Design matures.
Mascot:
The Duck-billed Platypus, for a variety of reasons, not least of which is high SI and possible IC in it's features, from PLAtYPUS WeiRDeR tHAn THOUGHt:
Unlikely but true. In addition to a ducklike bill, poisonous claws, and terminal confusion over milk and eggs, the platypus has 10 sex chromosomes. Most mammals have only two. But a female platypus has 10 X chromosomes and males have five X and five Y. Some of the chromosomes are like ours, and others are like those of birds.
Or as Ogden Nash Wrote:
The Platypus
I like the duck-billed platypus
Because it is anomalous.
I like the way it raises its family
Partly birdly, partly mammaly.
I like its independent attitude.
Let no one call it a duck-billed platitude.Foreign Affiliates:(1)
(1) - all at the same address.
- Instituto del Diseno Tonto
- Institut de Conception Drole
- Institut des Dummen Designs
- Istituto del Disegno Divertente
- Instituut van Grappig Ontwerp
Submit Papers:
Submit papers to be in html format (paper, all graphics, sub-pages, etc to be in a zip file to be extracted to a folder with the same name as the paper, with the paper to be included in the folder for the links to work), all submissions to become the property of the Institute, and the author(s) will automatically be added as members of the Institute, thus providing us a growing base of "Known Scientists that Support Silly Design"
Our highly trained editor(s) will peer at, and review, all submissions before including any in our on-line journal. Amount of peer\review to be determined on a case by case basis.
Submit papers to Silly Design Institute Editor.
Papers submitted to date:
- Investigator: Eye's Silly Design
- A Wing and A Walkingstick
- Sex, Sickness and Silliness
- Flagellum's Funny Flailing
- (next paper)
Enjoy.
