Here is the Table of Contents for The Design Matrix:

Introduction xi

Part I — The Way

Chapter 1: Lessons from a Vanishing Face 3

The Face 5
What Can We Learn from the Vanishing Face? 7
The Face of Life 11
A Fly in the Soup 13
The High-Resolution Face of Life 16

Chapter 2: The Explanatory Continuum 19

The Traditional Template 24
Inductive Gradualism 29
Stumping Darwin 34

Part II — The Clues

Chapter 3: Echoes of Technology 39

Misleading Metaphors? 43
A Convergence Between Biology and Engineering 54

Chapter 4: Error Correction Runs Deep 64

Proteins and Nucleic Acids 65
Encoding Life 68
The Code 70
An Optimized Code 74
Proofreading 77
A Parity Code 80
Proofreading in the Light of Design 84
The Suspicion Deepens 86

Chapter 5:: Welcome to the Machines 89

What’s in a Machine? 95
Machines Point to Intelligent Design 98
Haven’t We Heard This All Before? 101
The Nanotechnologists 103

Part III — The Challenges

Chapter 6: Ducks and Rabbits 113

Why Not Backtrack? 118
Evolvoid 119
Of Ducks and Rabbits 122
Do You See What I See? 124
Back to the Evidence 129

Chapter 7: Designing Evolution 137

Putting Darwin to Work 140
Front-Loading Evolution 146
Unpredictably Predictable 148
Selecting Your Surrogates 152
Multi-Tasking 159
Designed to Redesign 164
Flexibility 167
Chance Favors the Prepared Genome 173
Return of the Rabbit 179

Part IV — The Matrix

Chapter 8: Analogies and Discontinuities 193

Help from the Skeptics 195
The Power of Analogy 199
Deepening the Analogy 201
Weakening the Analogy 208
The Blind Watchmaker Returns 211
Irreducible Complexity 214
Possible Ways to Evolve Irreducible Complexity 219
Irreducible Complexity in the Matrix 226
The System-Dependent Core 231
Summing Up 235

Chapter 9: Rationality and Foresight 240

Rational Engineer versus the Tinkerer 243
Structural and Functional Decomposition 247
Attributes of Rational Design 252
The Plan 254
Looking Ahead 258

Chapter 10: The Design Matrix Unleashed 268

Taking the Matrix for a Test Drive 276
Getting Ready for the Quest 286

Index 292