Saturday, May 28, 2005
What is biosemiotics?
What is biosemiotics?:
"Values and semantic closure
Traditional physics never studied values (i.e., usefulness) of objects. But the notion of value is very important for understanding the phenomenon of life. Values can be applied also to various kinds of activity: eating, sleeping, moving, growing, reproducing, etc. By evaluating objects and processes, an organism subjectively interprets the world and itself, i.e. it builds its Umwelt (Uexkull 1940).
Usefulness is not a quality but a relation between an object and user. But at a closer look, a user is nothing but a collection of useful objects. Organs are tools that are used by an organism for performing specific functions, but there is nothing in the organism besides organs. Thus, the user is just a set of relations between useful parts. Obviously, not all kinds of relations can be considered useful. Some relations may destroy the system. Relations are useful only if they preserve and augment the same relations in the future, i.e., if these relations are self-reproducing. This idea was first formulated by Pattee (1982, 1995) and was called 'semantic closure'. Semantic closure is a new criterion for autonomy (or wholeness) of systems. A set of elements connected by relations is autonomous only if it is semantically closed, i.e., it reproduces itself in the future and defines its identity in the process of self-production. The value of each component or relation in an autonomous system corresponds to its contribution to the ability (or probability) of the system to reproduce itself.
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Biologists may ask why to use semiotic terminology in simple population models? In particular, why to talk about semantic closure instead of self-reproduction? "Self-reproduction" seems to be a convenient term that does not have uncertainties associated with signs or semantics. But this simplicity is illusive; self-reproduction includes the word "self" which comes from the field of semiotics rather than physics or biology. In the process of self-reproduction, an organism defines itself; in other words, self is what is preserved in the process of self-reproduction. Self-reproduction is simultaneously a process of self-measurement, self-interpretation, and communication from parents to offsprings.
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Human signs also have values, but this value is no longer connected with biological reproduction. Human evolution is driven more by the propagation of life styles (memes) rather than by propagation of genes. Memes are associated with specific human relations (e.g., ethical, religious, educational, etc.). The value of texts is associated with propagation of these relations. Peirce (1955) described only a half of the life cycle of a sign, i.e., the process of perception and recognition. He did not analyze the process of sign production which closes the cycle (semantic closure). According to Pattee (1995) each sign participates in a larger system with semantic closure. "
"Values and semantic closure
Traditional physics never studied values (i.e., usefulness) of objects. But the notion of value is very important for understanding the phenomenon of life. Values can be applied also to various kinds of activity: eating, sleeping, moving, growing, reproducing, etc. By evaluating objects and processes, an organism subjectively interprets the world and itself, i.e. it builds its Umwelt (Uexkull 1940).
Usefulness is not a quality but a relation between an object and user. But at a closer look, a user is nothing but a collection of useful objects. Organs are tools that are used by an organism for performing specific functions, but there is nothing in the organism besides organs. Thus, the user is just a set of relations between useful parts. Obviously, not all kinds of relations can be considered useful. Some relations may destroy the system. Relations are useful only if they preserve and augment the same relations in the future, i.e., if these relations are self-reproducing. This idea was first formulated by Pattee (1982, 1995) and was called 'semantic closure'. Semantic closure is a new criterion for autonomy (or wholeness) of systems. A set of elements connected by relations is autonomous only if it is semantically closed, i.e., it reproduces itself in the future and defines its identity in the process of self-production. The value of each component or relation in an autonomous system corresponds to its contribution to the ability (or probability) of the system to reproduce itself.
.........
.........
Biologists may ask why to use semiotic terminology in simple population models? In particular, why to talk about semantic closure instead of self-reproduction? "Self-reproduction" seems to be a convenient term that does not have uncertainties associated with signs or semantics. But this simplicity is illusive; self-reproduction includes the word "self" which comes from the field of semiotics rather than physics or biology. In the process of self-reproduction, an organism defines itself; in other words, self is what is preserved in the process of self-reproduction. Self-reproduction is simultaneously a process of self-measurement, self-interpretation, and communication from parents to offsprings.
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Human signs also have values, but this value is no longer connected with biological reproduction. Human evolution is driven more by the propagation of life styles (memes) rather than by propagation of genes. Memes are associated with specific human relations (e.g., ethical, religious, educational, etc.). The value of texts is associated with propagation of these relations. Peirce (1955) described only a half of the life cycle of a sign, i.e., the process of perception and recognition. He did not analyze the process of sign production which closes the cycle (semantic closure). According to Pattee (1995) each sign participates in a larger system with semantic closure. "
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