[D66] Beyond Design and Accident: Vision, Computation, and the Self-Observing Universe

[René Oudeweg]

Beyond Design and Accident:
Vision, Computation, and the Self-Observing Universe
René Oudeweg
January 3 2026


Abstract

The debate between intelligent design and evolutionary theory has 
traditionally been framed as a dichotomy between intentional design and 
blind mechanism. This essay proposes a third framework that dissolves 
this binary: the universe as fundamentally computational and 
self-observing. By examining biological vision not merely as an adaptive 
feature but as an instantiation of reality’s intrinsic tendency toward
self-observation through computation, we can reframe the apparent 
“complexity” that intelligent design advocates identify not as evidence 
of external design, but as evidence of computation observing itself. 
This perspective synthesizes insights from information theory, quantum 
mechanics, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology to suggest
that the evolution of eyes represents something ontologically deeper 
than either camp has recognized.
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