Hi, (*1*) S. Brier constructed a comprehensive theory of life world called "cybersemiotics" by integrating information theory or cybernetics, first-person consciousness, and Peircean semiotics [1]. His cybersemiotic theory is symbolized by the so-called the “Cybersemiotic Star” (CS) consisting of the four nodes labeled *Energy, Life, Consciousness, *and* Meaning* [1, Fig. 9.1]. This diagram is amazingly similar in structure to the "semiotics of life" theory depicted as the gnergy tetrahedron (GT) as shown in Figure 47 in [2] and Figure 10.7 in [3]. Both these CS and GT diagrams contain four nodes with similar names as evident in *Table 1* below. The four nodes of the gnergy tetrahedron can be shown to “covers” the four nodes of the cybersemiotic star but not *vice versa. *For example, Matter covers Life, indicating that matter is necessary for life but life is not necessary for matter, since there are matter that is not a part of living organisms. For this reason, in mathematical terms, cybersemiotics can be viewed as a surjective co-domain of the gnergy tetrahedron, or cybersemiotics can be viewed as a function of the gnergy tertrahedron. One consequence of this analysis seems to be that cybersemiotics is supported by the gnergy tetrahedron. As will be discussed in (*2*), the difference between CS and GT is that the former is a description of life world, while GT is a theoretical model of it embodying two main principles, the principles of *supplementarity* and *complementarity* first enunciated by N. Bohr based on quantum physics in the 1920's [4].
*Table 1.* A comparison between the cybersemiotic star (CS) [1] and the gnergy tetrahedron (GT) [2, 3]: CS is the surjective co-domain of GT, or CS is the function of GT that embodies the principle of supplementarity and complementarity [4]. 0 Edge 0 Node 0 *Morphisms *[5, 6] *Functors *[5, 6] (*Supplementarity*) [4] *Natural Transformation *[5, 6] (*Complementarity*) [4] Cybernetic Star [1] Gnergy Tetrahedron [2, 3] 1 *Energy* *Energy* *Mattergy* [4] *GNERGY** [4, 7] 2 *Life* *Matter* 3 *Consciousness* *Life* *Liformation*** [4] 4 *Meaning* *Information* *Coined in 1991 by combining Greek stems, "gn-" from gnosis meaning knowledge and "-ergy" from ergon meaning work or energy [7]. Discrete units of gnergy are called "gnergons" whose existence have been experimentally demonstrated in the forms of conformons, conformational strains stored in sequence-specific sites within biopoymers such as DNA supercoils and SIDS (stress-induced duplex destabilizations), etc. (reviewed in [8]). **Coined in 2012 [4] by combining "life" and "information" in analogy to "mattergy" which is the combination of "matter" and "energy". (*2*) Another way of comparing the cybersemiotic star and the gnergy tetrahedron is on the basis of the ITR (Irreducible Triadic Relation) template/diagram as shown in Figure 1 below. f g *Phaneron* -------> *Cybersemiotic Star* -------> *Genergy Tetrahedron* (Phenomenon) (Phaneroscopy) (Models/Theories/Habits) [Firstness] [Secondness] [Thirdness] <Object> <Representamen> <Interpretant> {Reality} {Names} {Ideas} | ^ | | |___________________________________________| h Figure 1. The ITR (Irreducible Triadic Relation) as the organizing principle of human knowing. As you can see, Figure 1 consists of 5 layers, to each of which the ITR can be applied. The meaning of the structure-preserving mappings, f, g and h, would depend on the layers involved, and my current suggestions are given below (if anyone has better ideas or corrections, please let me know): Layer 1: f = description; g = theorizing; h = intersubjective correspondence Layer 2: f = description; g = cognition; h = intersubjective correspondence Layer 3: f = perception; g = cognition; h = reasoning, thinking Layer 4*: *f = sign production; g = sign interpretation; h = grounding Layer 5: f = description; g = abstraction, generalization, theorizing; h = intersubjective correspondence (*3*) In Figure 1, Represntamen is considered to be Secondness, whereas Peirce often (if not all the time ?) considered it as Firstness. Any illuminating comments on this topic would be appreciated. (*4*) According to Figure 1, the age-old debate about *realism*, *nominalism* and *idealism* may be resolved by viewing these isms as the prescinded versions of the *irreducible triad* of Reality, Names and Ideas. (*5*) To the extent that the above speculations turn out to be valid, to that extent, ITR may be considered to provide a guiding (*mathematical*) principle for organizing *philosophies* and *special sciences *in agreement with the architectonic theory of human knowledge advocated by Peirce. All the best. Sung ____________________________________________ Sungchul Ji, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy Rutgers University Piscataway, N.J. 08855 732-445-4701 www.conformon.ne <http://www.conformon.net/> References: [1] Brier, S. (2013). Cybersemiotics: Why Information Is Not Enough! University of Toronto Press, Toronto. [2] Ji, S. (2004). Semiotics of Life: A Unified Theory of Molecular Machines, Cells, the Mind, Peircean Signs, and the Universe Based on the Principle of Information-Energy Complementarity, in: Reports, Research Group on Mathematical Linguistics, XVII Tarragona Seminar on Formal Syntax and Semantics, Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona, Spain, April 23-27, 2003. PDF Available at http://grammars.grlmc.com/GRLMC/reports/SOLManuscriptsubmitted_final.doc or http://www.confromon.net under Publications > Proceedings and Abstracts. [3] Ji, S. (2012). Molecular theory of the Living Cell: Concepts, Molecular Mechanisms, and Biomedical Applications. Springer, New York. P. 289. [4] Ji, S. (2012). Ibid. Pp. 24-29. PDF at http://www.confromon.net under Publications > Book Chapters. [5] Spivak, D. I. (2013). Category Theory for Scientists. http://math.mit.edu/~dspivak/teaching/sp13/CT4S--static.pdf [6] Brown, R. and Porter, T. (20xx). Category Theory: an abstract setting for analogy and comparison. http://pages.bangor.ac.uk/~mas010/Analogy-and-Comparison.pdf [7] Ji, S. (1991). The Biological Model of the Universe: The Shillongator. <http://www.conformon.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Shillongator_110720111.pdf> In: *Molecular Theories of Cell Life and Death *(S. Ji, ed.), The Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, pp. 152-163, 230-237. PDF at http://www.confromon.net under Publications > Book Chapters. [8] Ji, S. (2012). Ibid. Experimental Evidence for Conformons. Pp. 240-243.
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