Responding to Joe Felsenstein

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Full quote:

But the whole point is to see whether Design can be inferred in evolving systems. There the “meaning” would be biological function which leads to adaptedness, hence highish fitness. It would not be a matter of whether we can see the meaning, as long as the bird could fly or the fish could swim.

The inference of Design would have to made by finding some pattern that could only be from Design, or finding that this high a fitness could not be achieved by non-Design forces.- Joe Felsenstein

 Starting with the first sentence:

But the whole point is to see whether Design can be inferred in evolving systems. 

No. The whole point is to see whether Design can be inferred given the evidence and the known options. Intelligent Design is OK with evolution by design. Genetic and evolutionary algorithms, ie goal-oriented search algorithms (natural selection isn't a search, neither is genetic drift. natural selection doesn't have any goals and neither does drift) are examples of evolution by design. So one point would be to see if Design is a better explanation for evolving systems than, for example, the blind watchmaker thesis.

There the “meaning” would be biological function which leads to adaptedness, hence highish fitness. 

If one defines "adaptedness" as survival and "fitness" as differential reproduction, then that all seems meaningless, Joe. "What organisms are better adapted to their environment?" - The organisms that weren't eliminated. And what about fitness? The organisms that didn't get eliminated that had the most offspring were the fittest. So it's all an after-the-fact assessment then?

 It would not be a matter of whether we can see the meaning, as long as the bird could fly or the fish could swim.

Well the meaning comes from Crick's definition of biological information and the debate is about what process can explain its existence-> design, emergence, sheer dumb luck, destiny, whatever else.

The inference of Design would have to made by finding some pattern that could only be from Design, or finding that this high a fitness could not be achieved by non-Design forces.

And we have found that which can only be from Design, Joe. And no one even knows what non-design forces could produce a living organism. Even given a starting point of populations of prokaryotes there aren't any known non-design forces that can get beyond that.

Do you want to simulate non-design forces? Run Dawkins' "weasel" program without the target phrase and see how long it takes to hit that phrase.