Intelligent design = quantum computation?
Quote: "Intelligent design is just another form of creationism".
Well yes, but intelligent design, if it does take place, might be studied by scientific methods.
If you look at quantum computing (which is on the way to becoming technologically feasible), the main advantage quantum computation offers is that it can perform non-polynonlynomial calculations within polynomial time.
Design optimization problems (like finding the perfect surface shape for an aircraft wing, for example) often involve non-polynonlynomial calculations, which are so computation intensive that regular computers cannot handle them once the problem size gets above a certain point. However, quantum computers find no difficulty at all in processing non-polynonlynomial calculations of any size.
Working out the optimum shape and design of a protein is probably going to be a non-polynonlynomial calculation. If evolutionary processes had access to some natural form of quantum computation, and used this to pre-plan and design evolutionary changes to protein shape, then it could certainly said that there is intelligent design behind evolutionary processes.
So if we could prove that some computational processes are indeed pre-planning evolutionary changes, it would be reasonable to call this intelligent design.
Whether you want to call this intelligent design a "supernatural agent" is more a matter of taste and disposition: believers will say this is the work of God; atheists will say that it is merely a well-undertsood quantum effect.
In any case, it remains to be proven whether such intelligent design pre-planning processes take place or not in evolution.
