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Submit a ProposalPathways to the Origin and Evolution of Meanings in the Universe
 | Edited by Alexei Sharov and George Mikhailovsky
Series: Astrobiology Perspectives on Life in the Universe Copyright: 2024 | Status: Published ISBN: 9781119865094 | Hardcover | 500 pages Price: $225 USD  |
One Line Description
The book explains why meaning is a part of the universe populated by life,
and how organisms generate meanings and then use them for creative
transformation of the environment and themselves.
Audience
Theoretical biologists, ethologists, astrobiologists, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, philosophers, phenomenologists, semioticians, biosemioticians, molecular biologists, linguists, system scientists and engineers.
Theoretical biologists, ethologists, astrobiologists, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, philosophers, phenomenologists, semioticians, biosemioticians, molecular biologists, linguists, system scientists and engineers.
Description
This book focuses on interdisciplinary research at the intersection of biology, semiotics, philosophy, ethology, information theory, and the theory of evolution. Such a broad approach provides a rich context for the study of organisms and other semiotic agents in their environments. This methodology can be applied to robotics and artificial intelligence for developing robust, adaptable learning devices.
In this book, leading interdisciplinary scholars reveal their vision on how to integrate natural sciences with semiotics, a theory of meaning-making and signification. Developments in biology indicate that the capacity to create and understand signs is not limited to humans or vertebrate animals, but exists in all living organisms - the fact that inspired the integration of biology and semiotics into biosemiotics. The authors discuss the nature of semiotic agents (organisms and other autonomous goal-directed units), meaning, signs, information, memory, evolution, and consciousness. Also discussed are issues including the origin of life, potential meaning and its actualization, top-down causality in physics and biology, capacity of organisms to encode their functions, the strategy of organisms to combine homeostasis with direct adaptation to new life-cycle phases or new environments, multi-level memory systems, increase of freedom via enabling constraints, creative modeling in evolution and learning, communication in animals and humans, the origin and function of language, and the distribution and transfer of life in space.
This is the first book on biosemiotics in its global conceptual and spatial scope. Biosemiotics is presented using the language of natural sciences, which supports the scientific grounding of semiotic terms. Finally, the cosmic dimension of life and meaning-making leads to a reconsideration of ethical principles and ecological mentality here on earth and in space exploration.
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This book focuses on interdisciplinary research at the intersection of biology, semiotics, philosophy, ethology, information theory, and the theory of evolution. Such a broad approach provides a rich context for the study of organisms and other semiotic agents in their environments. This methodology can be applied to robotics and artificial intelligence for developing robust, adaptable learning devices.
In this book, leading interdisciplinary scholars reveal their vision on how to integrate natural sciences with semiotics, a theory of meaning-making and signification. Developments in biology indicate that the capacity to create and understand signs is not limited to humans or vertebrate animals, but exists in all living organisms - the fact that inspired the integration of biology and semiotics into biosemiotics. The authors discuss the nature of semiotic agents (organisms and other autonomous goal-directed units), meaning, signs, information, memory, evolution, and consciousness. Also discussed are issues including the origin of life, potential meaning and its actualization, top-down causality in physics and biology, capacity of organisms to encode their functions, the strategy of organisms to combine homeostasis with direct adaptation to new life-cycle phases or new environments, multi-level memory systems, increase of freedom via enabling constraints, creative modeling in evolution and learning, communication in animals and humans, the origin and function of language, and the distribution and transfer of life in space.
This is the first book on biosemiotics in its global conceptual and spatial scope. Biosemiotics is presented using the language of natural sciences, which supports the scientific grounding of semiotic terms. Finally, the cosmic dimension of life and meaning-making leads to a reconsideration of ethical principles and ecological mentality here on earth and in space exploration.
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Author / Editor Details
Alexei A. Sharov is the vice president of bioinformatics at Elixirgen Scientific in Baltimore, USA. He holds a Ph.D. in ecology and entomology from Moscow State University in Russia. He’s the editor of Journal Biosemiotics, published 4 books, and 180 peer-reviewed papers. Sharov has organized three conferences on biosemiotics.
Alexei A. Sharov is the vice president of bioinformatics at Elixirgen Scientific in Baltimore, USA. He holds a Ph.D. in ecology and entomology from Moscow State University in Russia. He’s the editor of Journal Biosemiotics, published 4 books, and 180 peer-reviewed papers. Sharov has organized three conferences on biosemiotics.
George E. Mikhailovsky is the president and CEO of Global Mind Share in Norfolk, USA. He has a Ph.D. in biophysics from Moscow State University in Russia and a DSc in systems ecology from P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology. Currently, he is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Evolutionary Science and has published 5 books and 100 peer-reviewed papers.
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Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I: The Nature of Meaning and Its Components
1. Introduction: Towards Integrating Studies of Meanings with Science
Alexei A. Sharov
1.1 Crossing the Great Paradigm Divide
1.2 What is Meaning?
1.3 The Origin of Life
1.4 Semiotic Agency
1.5 Mind and Consciousness
1.6 Semiogenesis and Learning
1.7 Global Dimensions of Biosemiosis
1.8 Conclusions
Declaration
References
2. Pathways to the Understanding of Signs and Meanings in the Biosphere:
Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
Donald Favareau and Kalevi Kull
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Part One: A Brief History of the Conceptualization of Signs and Meanings in the Natural Sciences
2.2.1 Pre-Modern Theories of Sign and Meaning
2.2.2 The Exclusion of a Theory of Meaning in Modern Science
2.2.3 The Realization of the Need for a Theory of Signs and Meanings in Modern Science
2.3 Part Two: Towards a Future Science of Signs and Meaning
2.3.1 Biosemiotics: Searching for the Most General and Fundamental Aspects of the Sign Relation
2.3.2 Major Concepts and Terms Used in Biosemiotic Analysis
2.3.3 Semiotic Realism
2.4 Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Declaration
References
3. Is it a Janus-Faced World After All? Physics is Not Reductionist
Bashir Ahmad and Richard Gordon
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Top-Down Causation in Biology
3.3 Top-Down Causation in Physics and Chemistry
3.4 Multilevel Probabilistic Systems
References
4. Semiotic Ground and the Hierarchic Nature of Information
Terrence W. Deacon
4.1 From Information to Semiosis: Why We Can’t Seem to Even Start
4.2 Three Embedded Information Theories
4.3 Computation and Structural Information
4.4 Semiotic Grounding
4.5 A Possible Bridge?
4.6 Preliminary Conclusions
References
5. Ontology and Semiotics of Memory
Anton V. Sukhoverkhov and Arran E. Gare
5.1 Semiotic Realism versus Semiotic Constructivism
5.2 Protosemiosis: Recording Without Reading or ‘Heritability’ of the Universe
Before Earth
5.3 Biological Memory: Between a Particle and a Wave
5.4 Social Memory: From Nature to Nurture
5.5 Memory and the Origin of Language
5.6 Conclusions
Declaration
References
6. Meanings, Their Hierarchy, and Evolution
George E. Mikhailovsky
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Hierarchogenesis and Its Stages During the General Evolution of the Universe
6.3 Potential Meanings During the Abiotic Period of the Evolution of the Universe
6.4 Evolution of Meanings in the Biological Systems
6.5 The Evolution of Meanings in Human Societies and the Relationship between Hierarchies of Substance and Semantics
Declarations
Acknowledgments
References
7. Semiotics of Potential Meanings
Alexei A. Sharov
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Form in the Philosophy of Idealism
7.3 Semiotic Agency in Biosemiotics
7.4 Signs and Meanings as Semiotic Tools
7.5 Conceptualizing Potential Meanings and Signs
7.6 Potential Meanings and Complexity of the Non-Living World
7.7 Actualization of Potential Meanings by Organisms
7.7.1 The Origin of Life
7.7.2 Potential Signs in Evolution
7.7.3 The Phenomenon of Memory
7.8 Potential Signs and Meanings in Human Life
Declaration
Acknowledgments
References
8. A Constructivist Approach to Meanings in the Universe
Alexander Kravchenko
8.1 Do We Ask the Right Kinds of Questions?
8.2 The Epistemological Trap of Language
8.3 The Observer, the Observed, and the Problem of Interpretation
8.4 Meaning and the Mindful Observer
References
Part II: Meanings in the Evolution of Life
9. Chemical Origins of Life, Agency, and Meaning
Alexei A. Sharov
9.1 Conflicting Paradigms in Studying the Origin of Life
9.2 Physicochemical Evolution
9.3 Hypothetical Primordial Soup
9.4 Life Emerged in the Form of Molecular Agency
9.5 Lipid World as a Habitat for Self-Reproducing Catalytic Agents
9.6 Semiotics of Heredity
9.7 Evolvability of Molecular Agents
9.8 Emergence of Unlimited Heredity and Cell Membrane
9.9 How Old is Life?
9.10 Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Declaration
References
10. Evolution of Biomolecular Communication
Gustavo Caetano-Anollés
10.1 Introduction
10.2 A Biphasic Model of Evolutionary Growth
10.3 Communication
10.4 Learning Demands Communication
10.5 Biological Vocabularies and Their Evolution
10.6 Persistence, the Evolutionary Master
10.7 Laws of Language in Biological Communication
10.8 Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Declaration
References
11. Meaning Relies on Codes but Depends on Agents
Robert Prinz
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Organic Codes and Cellular Core Functionalities
11.3 Codes Control Other Codes
11.4 Coding the Mind: Neural Codes Enable Perception and Cognition
11.5 Meaning in or from Codes?
11.6 Meaning with or without Interpretation?
11.7 Critical Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Declaration
References
12. Evolutionary Growth of Meanings in the Relational Universe of Intercommunicating Agents
Abir U. Igamberdiev
12.1 Introduction: Agency and Meaning
12.2 Physical Background of the Agential Nature
12.3 Meaningful Information in Autopoietic Systems
12.4 Generation of New Meanings in the Evolutionary Process
12.5 The Growth of Meanings in the Evolutionary Transition from Biological to Social Systems
12.6 Conclusion
Declaration
References
Part III: Meanings in Organism Behavior and Cognition
13. The Sentient Cell
Arthur S. Reber, František Baluška and William B. Miller, Jr.
13.1 Introduction
13.2 The Issues
13.2.1 The Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC) Model
13.2.2 Biomolecular Candidates for Sentience
13.2.3 Biological Information
13.2.4 Cell Sentience is not Gene-Centric
13.2.5 Non-Biological Entities Cannot Become Conscious Agents
13.2.6 The Role of Anesthetics
13.2.7 Basic Principles of Evolutionary Biology and the Question of Floral Sentience
13.3 The Last Word
References
14. A Hypothesis about How Bacterial Cells Sustain and Change Their Lives in Response to Various Signals
Vic Norris and Alexei A. Sharov
14.1 Introduction
14.2 The Hypothesis
14.3 The Evidence
14.3.1 Hyperstructures
14.3.2 Competitive Coherence at the Hyperstructure Level: Selection of Molecules and Macromolecules
14.3.3 Competitive Coherence at the Level of the Cell: Selection of Hyperstructures
14.3.4 Cell Cycle Hyperstructures and Signaling
14.4 Using Semiotics to Explain Cues and Signals in Bacteria
14.4.1 Types of Semiosis, Signs and Effectors
14.4.2 Hierarchy, Agency, and Their Features
14.5 Discussion
Declaration
Acknowledgment
References
15. Self-Reinforcing Cycles and Mistakes: The Emergence of Subjective Meaning
Victoria N. Alexander
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Subjective versus Relatively Objective
15.3 How Symbols Are Used by Brainless Living Systems
15.4 How Indexes Are Used by Brainless Living Systems
15.5 How Icons Are Used by Brainless Living Systems
15.6 The History of Directionality and Originality as Concepts in Evolutionary Science
15.7 Looping Signal Pathways, Oscillators and Turing Switches as Sensors
15.8 Conclusions
Declaration
References
16. On the Energy-Based Limitations of the Information Capacity and Information Processing Rates in the Human Brain
Jack A. Tuszynski
16.1 Introduction
16.2 The Neuron: The Brain’s Functional Unit
16.3 General Power Consumption Considerations
16.4 Energy Cost of Information Processing
16.5 The Brain’s Time Scale Hierarchies and Information Processing Rates
16.6 The Ion Channels
16.7 Discussion
16.8 Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Declaration
References
17. The Peculiar Case of Danger Modeling: Meaning-Generation in Three Dimensions
Hongbing Yu
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Models In, Models Out
17.3 Modeling, Coupled with Semiosis
17.4 Danger Modeling
17.5 The Three Dimensions: Further Comments
Declaration
References
Part IV: Meanings in Humans and Beyond
18. Anchors of Meaning: The Intertwining of Signs, Abduction, and Cognitive Niches
Lorenzo Magnani
18.1 Humans as Ecological Engineers and Chance Seekers: The Role of Abduction
18.2 Semiotic Brains Construct Cognitive Niches
18.2.1 Ecological Niche and Cognitive Niche Construction
18.3 Cognitive Niches Construction Expresses an Evolutionary Sense of Purposefulness
18.3.1 Two Inheritance Systems: General and Ecological
18.3.2 Adaptive and Maladaptive Artifacts and Abductive Cognition
18.3.3 An Evolutionary Sense of Purposefulness
18.4 Anchors of Meaning: External Semiotic Representations and the Disembodiment of the Mind
18.4.1 Construction and Manipulation of Meaning Using External Semiotic Anchors
18.4.2 The Semiotic Role of the Anchors of Meaning and the Disembodiment of the Mind: An Example
18.5 Material Anchors for Conceptual Blends
18.6 Conclusion
Declaration
References
19. Levels of Translation, Levels of Freedom?
Kobus Marais
19.1 Introduction
19.2 Conceptualizing Translation
19.2.1 Thermodynamics and Translation
19.2.2 Lotman and Semiotic Emergence
19.3 Levels of Translation and Complexity
19.4 The Paradox: Levels of Translation and Levels of Freedom
Acknowledgments
Declaration
References
20. Towards a Biosemiotic Account of Memes as Units of Cultural Replication
and Interpretation
Ivan Fomin
20.1 Introduction
20.2 What Is a Meme?
20.3 Memes as Signs
20.4 Memes as Logonomic Signs
20.5 Memes as Secondary Subagents
20.6 Memes as Tardo-Signs
20.7 Conclusion: Memes as Tardo-Semiotic Subagents and Sixty-Five Other Conceptualizations of Memes
Funding
References
21. Astrobiosemiotics and Its Frontier with Astrobiology
Julian Chela-Flores
21.1 Introduction: Astrobiology and Its Frontier with the Humanities, Especially Biosemiotics
21.1.1 The Origin of Life in the Universe
21.1.2 The Evolution of Life in the Universe
21.1.3 The Distribution of Life in the Universe
21.1.4 The Destiny of Life in the Universe
21.2 Philosophical Overlapping of Humanities and Astrobiology
21.2.1 Epistemology
21.2.2 Cognitive Science
21.2.3 Semiotics
21.3 Three Remarkable Frontiers of Astrobiology: Semiotics, Biosemiotics and Astrobiosemiotics
21.3.1 New Frontiers of Astrobiology
21.3.2 What Does Astrobiology Share with Astrobiosemiotics?
21.3.3 Astrobiosemiotics and Other Humanistic Studies
21.4 Is It Reasonable to Suppose a First Contact Will Influence Astrobiosemiotics?
21.4.1 Should Aspects of Humanity be Extended Beyond Our Own Species?
21.4.2 Are We Able to Receive Signals from Other Worlds?
21.4.3 Evolutionary Convergence
21.5 Astrobiosemiotics after Contact: A Tentative Framework
21.5.1 Speculations on the Content of a Message from a First Contact
21.5.2 Implications of a First Contact for Astrobiosemiotics
21.6 Conclusions
Acknowledgments
References
22. Time Horizons and Biosemiotic Adaptation: Taking Seriously Variable Temporalities in the Evolution of Possible Life Forms
Yogi H. Hendlin and Constantijn-Alexander Kusters
22.1 Introduction
22.2 Time as Model and Life
22.3 Semiotic Understandings of Time as Adaptation
22.4 Temporal Horizons
22.5 Dimensionality in Biosemiotics
22.6 Conclusion
Declaration
References
Index
Back to Top
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I: The Nature of Meaning and Its Components
1. Introduction: Towards Integrating Studies of Meanings with Science
Alexei A. Sharov
1.1 Crossing the Great Paradigm Divide
1.2 What is Meaning?
1.3 The Origin of Life
1.4 Semiotic Agency
1.5 Mind and Consciousness
1.6 Semiogenesis and Learning
1.7 Global Dimensions of Biosemiosis
1.8 Conclusions
Declaration
References
2. Pathways to the Understanding of Signs and Meanings in the Biosphere:
Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
Donald Favareau and Kalevi Kull
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Part One: A Brief History of the Conceptualization of Signs and Meanings in the Natural Sciences
2.2.1 Pre-Modern Theories of Sign and Meaning
2.2.2 The Exclusion of a Theory of Meaning in Modern Science
2.2.3 The Realization of the Need for a Theory of Signs and Meanings in Modern Science
2.3 Part Two: Towards a Future Science of Signs and Meaning
2.3.1 Biosemiotics: Searching for the Most General and Fundamental Aspects of the Sign Relation
2.3.2 Major Concepts and Terms Used in Biosemiotic Analysis
2.3.3 Semiotic Realism
2.4 Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Declaration
References
3. Is it a Janus-Faced World After All? Physics is Not Reductionist
Bashir Ahmad and Richard Gordon
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Top-Down Causation in Biology
3.3 Top-Down Causation in Physics and Chemistry
3.4 Multilevel Probabilistic Systems
References
4. Semiotic Ground and the Hierarchic Nature of Information
Terrence W. Deacon
4.1 From Information to Semiosis: Why We Can’t Seem to Even Start
4.2 Three Embedded Information Theories
4.3 Computation and Structural Information
4.4 Semiotic Grounding
4.5 A Possible Bridge?
4.6 Preliminary Conclusions
References
5. Ontology and Semiotics of Memory
Anton V. Sukhoverkhov and Arran E. Gare
5.1 Semiotic Realism versus Semiotic Constructivism
5.2 Protosemiosis: Recording Without Reading or ‘Heritability’ of the Universe
Before Earth
5.3 Biological Memory: Between a Particle and a Wave
5.4 Social Memory: From Nature to Nurture
5.5 Memory and the Origin of Language
5.6 Conclusions
Declaration
References
6. Meanings, Their Hierarchy, and Evolution
George E. Mikhailovsky
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Hierarchogenesis and Its Stages During the General Evolution of the Universe
6.3 Potential Meanings During the Abiotic Period of the Evolution of the Universe
6.4 Evolution of Meanings in the Biological Systems
6.5 The Evolution of Meanings in Human Societies and the Relationship between Hierarchies of Substance and Semantics
Declarations
Acknowledgments
References
7. Semiotics of Potential Meanings
Alexei A. Sharov
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Form in the Philosophy of Idealism
7.3 Semiotic Agency in Biosemiotics
7.4 Signs and Meanings as Semiotic Tools
7.5 Conceptualizing Potential Meanings and Signs
7.6 Potential Meanings and Complexity of the Non-Living World
7.7 Actualization of Potential Meanings by Organisms
7.7.1 The Origin of Life
7.7.2 Potential Signs in Evolution
7.7.3 The Phenomenon of Memory
7.8 Potential Signs and Meanings in Human Life
Declaration
Acknowledgments
References
8. A Constructivist Approach to Meanings in the Universe
Alexander Kravchenko
8.1 Do We Ask the Right Kinds of Questions?
8.2 The Epistemological Trap of Language
8.3 The Observer, the Observed, and the Problem of Interpretation
8.4 Meaning and the Mindful Observer
References
Part II: Meanings in the Evolution of Life
9. Chemical Origins of Life, Agency, and Meaning
Alexei A. Sharov
9.1 Conflicting Paradigms in Studying the Origin of Life
9.2 Physicochemical Evolution
9.3 Hypothetical Primordial Soup
9.4 Life Emerged in the Form of Molecular Agency
9.5 Lipid World as a Habitat for Self-Reproducing Catalytic Agents
9.6 Semiotics of Heredity
9.7 Evolvability of Molecular Agents
9.8 Emergence of Unlimited Heredity and Cell Membrane
9.9 How Old is Life?
9.10 Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Declaration
References
10. Evolution of Biomolecular Communication
Gustavo Caetano-Anollés
10.1 Introduction
10.2 A Biphasic Model of Evolutionary Growth
10.3 Communication
10.4 Learning Demands Communication
10.5 Biological Vocabularies and Their Evolution
10.6 Persistence, the Evolutionary Master
10.7 Laws of Language in Biological Communication
10.8 Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Declaration
References
11. Meaning Relies on Codes but Depends on Agents
Robert Prinz
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Organic Codes and Cellular Core Functionalities
11.3 Codes Control Other Codes
11.4 Coding the Mind: Neural Codes Enable Perception and Cognition
11.5 Meaning in or from Codes?
11.6 Meaning with or without Interpretation?
11.7 Critical Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Declaration
References
12. Evolutionary Growth of Meanings in the Relational Universe of Intercommunicating Agents
Abir U. Igamberdiev
12.1 Introduction: Agency and Meaning
12.2 Physical Background of the Agential Nature
12.3 Meaningful Information in Autopoietic Systems
12.4 Generation of New Meanings in the Evolutionary Process
12.5 The Growth of Meanings in the Evolutionary Transition from Biological to Social Systems
12.6 Conclusion
Declaration
References
Part III: Meanings in Organism Behavior and Cognition
13. The Sentient Cell
Arthur S. Reber, František Baluška and William B. Miller, Jr.
13.1 Introduction
13.2 The Issues
13.2.1 The Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC) Model
13.2.2 Biomolecular Candidates for Sentience
13.2.3 Biological Information
13.2.4 Cell Sentience is not Gene-Centric
13.2.5 Non-Biological Entities Cannot Become Conscious Agents
13.2.6 The Role of Anesthetics
13.2.7 Basic Principles of Evolutionary Biology and the Question of Floral Sentience
13.3 The Last Word
References
14. A Hypothesis about How Bacterial Cells Sustain and Change Their Lives in Response to Various Signals
Vic Norris and Alexei A. Sharov
14.1 Introduction
14.2 The Hypothesis
14.3 The Evidence
14.3.1 Hyperstructures
14.3.2 Competitive Coherence at the Hyperstructure Level: Selection of Molecules and Macromolecules
14.3.3 Competitive Coherence at the Level of the Cell: Selection of Hyperstructures
14.3.4 Cell Cycle Hyperstructures and Signaling
14.4 Using Semiotics to Explain Cues and Signals in Bacteria
14.4.1 Types of Semiosis, Signs and Effectors
14.4.2 Hierarchy, Agency, and Their Features
14.5 Discussion
Declaration
Acknowledgment
References
15. Self-Reinforcing Cycles and Mistakes: The Emergence of Subjective Meaning
Victoria N. Alexander
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Subjective versus Relatively Objective
15.3 How Symbols Are Used by Brainless Living Systems
15.4 How Indexes Are Used by Brainless Living Systems
15.5 How Icons Are Used by Brainless Living Systems
15.6 The History of Directionality and Originality as Concepts in Evolutionary Science
15.7 Looping Signal Pathways, Oscillators and Turing Switches as Sensors
15.8 Conclusions
Declaration
References
16. On the Energy-Based Limitations of the Information Capacity and Information Processing Rates in the Human Brain
Jack A. Tuszynski
16.1 Introduction
16.2 The Neuron: The Brain’s Functional Unit
16.3 General Power Consumption Considerations
16.4 Energy Cost of Information Processing
16.5 The Brain’s Time Scale Hierarchies and Information Processing Rates
16.6 The Ion Channels
16.7 Discussion
16.8 Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Declaration
References
17. The Peculiar Case of Danger Modeling: Meaning-Generation in Three Dimensions
Hongbing Yu
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Models In, Models Out
17.3 Modeling, Coupled with Semiosis
17.4 Danger Modeling
17.5 The Three Dimensions: Further Comments
Declaration
References
Part IV: Meanings in Humans and Beyond
18. Anchors of Meaning: The Intertwining of Signs, Abduction, and Cognitive Niches
Lorenzo Magnani
18.1 Humans as Ecological Engineers and Chance Seekers: The Role of Abduction
18.2 Semiotic Brains Construct Cognitive Niches
18.2.1 Ecological Niche and Cognitive Niche Construction
18.3 Cognitive Niches Construction Expresses an Evolutionary Sense of Purposefulness
18.3.1 Two Inheritance Systems: General and Ecological
18.3.2 Adaptive and Maladaptive Artifacts and Abductive Cognition
18.3.3 An Evolutionary Sense of Purposefulness
18.4 Anchors of Meaning: External Semiotic Representations and the Disembodiment of the Mind
18.4.1 Construction and Manipulation of Meaning Using External Semiotic Anchors
18.4.2 The Semiotic Role of the Anchors of Meaning and the Disembodiment of the Mind: An Example
18.5 Material Anchors for Conceptual Blends
18.6 Conclusion
Declaration
References
19. Levels of Translation, Levels of Freedom?
Kobus Marais
19.1 Introduction
19.2 Conceptualizing Translation
19.2.1 Thermodynamics and Translation
19.2.2 Lotman and Semiotic Emergence
19.3 Levels of Translation and Complexity
19.4 The Paradox: Levels of Translation and Levels of Freedom
Acknowledgments
Declaration
References
20. Towards a Biosemiotic Account of Memes as Units of Cultural Replication
and Interpretation
Ivan Fomin
20.1 Introduction
20.2 What Is a Meme?
20.3 Memes as Signs
20.4 Memes as Logonomic Signs
20.5 Memes as Secondary Subagents
20.6 Memes as Tardo-Signs
20.7 Conclusion: Memes as Tardo-Semiotic Subagents and Sixty-Five Other Conceptualizations of Memes
Funding
References
21. Astrobiosemiotics and Its Frontier with Astrobiology
Julian Chela-Flores
21.1 Introduction: Astrobiology and Its Frontier with the Humanities, Especially Biosemiotics
21.1.1 The Origin of Life in the Universe
21.1.2 The Evolution of Life in the Universe
21.1.3 The Distribution of Life in the Universe
21.1.4 The Destiny of Life in the Universe
21.2 Philosophical Overlapping of Humanities and Astrobiology
21.2.1 Epistemology
21.2.2 Cognitive Science
21.2.3 Semiotics
21.3 Three Remarkable Frontiers of Astrobiology: Semiotics, Biosemiotics and Astrobiosemiotics
21.3.1 New Frontiers of Astrobiology
21.3.2 What Does Astrobiology Share with Astrobiosemiotics?
21.3.3 Astrobiosemiotics and Other Humanistic Studies
21.4 Is It Reasonable to Suppose a First Contact Will Influence Astrobiosemiotics?
21.4.1 Should Aspects of Humanity be Extended Beyond Our Own Species?
21.4.2 Are We Able to Receive Signals from Other Worlds?
21.4.3 Evolutionary Convergence
21.5 Astrobiosemiotics after Contact: A Tentative Framework
21.5.1 Speculations on the Content of a Message from a First Contact
21.5.2 Implications of a First Contact for Astrobiosemiotics
21.6 Conclusions
Acknowledgments
References
22. Time Horizons and Biosemiotic Adaptation: Taking Seriously Variable Temporalities in the Evolution of Possible Life Forms
Yogi H. Hendlin and Constantijn-Alexander Kusters
22.1 Introduction
22.2 Time as Model and Life
22.3 Semiotic Understandings of Time as Adaptation
22.4 Temporal Horizons
22.5 Dimensionality in Biosemiotics
22.6 Conclusion
Declaration
References
Index
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