Commenting upon Pedro's
Dear FIS colleagues,
Sorry that I could barely follow and participate in the recent exchanges
(bureaucratic work overload). I was very interested in all the exchanges,
particularly in the early stages of the discussion. Notwithstanding the
high quality of the postings maybe we have a natural proclivity in this
list --the trend of looking for and discussing about those places where
there is light, evitating the obscure ones (as the joke of the theoretical
physicist looking for the lost keys of his car the closest possible to the
street lamp, and far from the very place he had lost them, searching where
there is light!).
Thus, I come back to meaning, helas, to do the same than the theoretical
physicist, but in the province of biology. The following 10 points could be
defended:
1. Meaning is built molecularly, by the living cell.
S: This is the position of the biosemiotics community (Semiotiics -
the study of meaning construction). With a nod to Loet, the procedure is
to begin with the most highly developed example of semiosis that we know of
-- human discourse -- to derive the necessary categories (induction, etc.),
which are then generalized in the spirit of systems science, so as to apply
them to biosemiosis, and all the way to pansemiosis if we like.
2. The self construction machinery of the cell is susceptible of being
guided by external signals evolutionarily afforded (converged upon).
3. Metabolic networks, signaling networks, gene networks, degradation
networks ---make sense overall, and together they provide the molecular
signature of meaning.
S: Or the molecular machiney for meaning construction.
4. A very special organization is formed, with formal properties not well
explained yet, that provides attractors, amplification, robustness,
resilience, stability, etc. involving the whole cellular system. See the
contemporary problems of System Biology (or those of the old, outdated
notion of autopoiesis).
S: The formal properties will necessarily be derived from human
discourse, and imposed upon the cellular system.
5. When eukaryotic multicellularity emerges, the above (4) becomes an even
more fascinating set, where some of the mathematical-
statistical-computational properties, converging in a controlled life
cycle, become paradoxically more susceptible of formal approaches.
S: Likely because our semiotic categories can more easily be
visualized as being operative here.
6. Nervous systems adopt the specialized function of putting in
electro-molecular terms the computational task of guiding the whole
multicellular organism along the implementation of its fitness in an open
ended environment.
7. Self-reference is an important aspect, both cellular-molecularly and
also for nervous systems.
And, as Loet has ben telling us, understanding this has been derived
from study of human discourse.
8. Any social, cultural, individual, neuronal, etc., visions or
acceptations of meaning finally conduce to life cycles in-the-making and
confronting an open ended environment.
9. Meaning can only be about life, around the multiple dimensions of fitness.
S: In my (NSH) opinion, meaning can be extended to all dissipative
structures. From an evolutionary viewpoint, nothing comes from nothing.
If we have meaning, it must have a precursor in simpler sysems. After all,
e.g., hot air rising has great meaning to an individual nascent hurricane!
10. The informational philosophy of the above points could be put in
congruence with some new information-physics approaches (generatitivity
of the vacuum).
S: A task for pensemiotics!
STAN
Thanks for the patience.
Pedro
=
Pedro C. Marijuán
Cátedra SAMCA
Institute of Engineering Research of Aragon (I3A)
Maria de Luna, 3. CPS, Univ. of Zaragoza
50018 Zaragoza, Spain
TEL. (34) 976 762761 and 762707, FAX (34) 976 762043
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
=
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