Books by Jesper Hoffmeyer
"This book presents programmatic texts on biosemiotics, written collectively by the theoreticians... more "This book presents programmatic texts on biosemiotics, written collectively by the theoreticians in the field (Deacon, Emmeche, Favareau, Hoffmeyer, Kull, Markoš, Pattee, Stjernfelt). In addition, the book includes chapters which focus closely on semiotic case studies (Bruni, Kotov, Maran, Neuman, Turovski).
According to the central thesis of biosemiotics, sign processes characterise all living systems and the very nature of life, and their diverse phenomena can be best explained via the dynamics and typology of sign relations. The authors are therefore presenting a deeper view on biological evolution, intentionality of organisms, the role of communication in the living world and the nature of sign systems — all topics which are described in this volume. This has important consequences on the methodology and epistemology of biology and study of life phenomena in general, which the authors aim to help the reader better understand."
Contents:
Introduction: Bateson the precursor; J. Hoffmeyer: Introduction.pdf (draft version)
... more Contents:
Introduction: Bateson the precursor; J. Hoffmeyer: Introduction.pdf (draft version)
1. Angels fear revisited; M.C. Bateson
2. From thing to relation. On Bateson's bioanthropology; J. Hoffmeyer
3. What connects the map to the territory; T. Cashman
4. The pattern which connects pleroma to creature; T. Deacon, J. Sherman
5. Bateson’s method: double description; J. Hui, T. Cashman, and T. Deacon:
6. Gregory Bateson's relevance to current molecular biology; L. Bruni
7. Process ecology: Creatura in an open universe; R.E. Ulanowicz:
8. Connections in action – bridging implicit and explicit domains;
T. Shilhab, C. Gerlach
9. Bateson: biology with meaning; B. Goodwin.
10. Gregory Bateson's 'uncovery' of ecological aesthetics; P. Harries-Jones:
11. Collapsing the wave function of meaning: the epistemological matrix of talk-in
interaction; D. Favareau:
12. Re-enchanting evolution: transcending fundamentalisms through a mythopoetic
epistemology; G. Mengel
13. Bateson and Peirce on the pattern that connects and the sacred; S. Brier
14. Bateson, Peirce and the sign of the sacred; D. Eicher-Catt.
Molecules and information have long been considered the major conceptual players at the core of s... more Molecules and information have long been considered the major conceptual players at the core of scientific biology. In the present book it is suggested that both these concepts fail to fully specify what life-processes are all about, namely semiosis – i.e., the sign processes by which living organisms must organize their internal and external relations. A sign is not the same thing as a piece of information. It is related to information but only becomes “information” through an act of interpretation. Only when an interpretant is formed (in a cell, in a tissue and, of course, in a brain) does “information” acquire biological meaning. Bio-molecules are always carriers of signs in this sense, and their function in the organism cannot be understood simply through an analysis of their chemistry. The Greek word for ‘sign’ is ‘semeion’ and biosemiotics literally means “the study of living systems from a semiotic (i.e., sign-theoretical) perspective.”
It is the aim of the present book to give a comprehensive account of the state of the art of this new approach to biology, and to explore the scientific landscapes brought to life through a broader application of its core idea. It should be emphasized here that biosemiotics does not imply any denial of the anchoring of biological processes in well-established physical and chemical lawfulness. Rather, it is claimed that life-processes are both part of – and are organized in obedience to – a semiotic dynamic, and that this fact cannot be omitted from a true science of life.
The book consists of three parts and a postscript. Part one contains a general discussion of the biosemiotic project as a strategy in life science and Part two contains a detailed exposition of biosemiotics as it may be employed in the understanding of life processes at different levels of animate nature. Part 3 addresses the radical consequences that the biosemiotic perspective will have on our thinking in a range of other areas: i.e., the origin of language, ethics, aesthetics, biomedicine, environmental understanding, health, cognitive science and biotechnology. In the Postscript is given a brief account of the historical development of the discipline, as well as a prognosis for its future growth.
Papers by Jesper Hoffmeyer
Journal of Bacteriology
or purine nucleoside phosphorylase have been constructed. From studies of the ability of these mu... more or purine nucleoside phosphorylase have been constructed. From studies of the ability of these mutants to utilize different purine compounds as the sole source of purines, the following conclusions may be drawn. (i) S. typhimurium does not contain physiologically significant amounts of adenine deaminase and adenosine kinase activities. (ii) The presence of inosine and guanosine kinase activities in vivo was established, although the former activity appears to be of minor significance for inosine metabolism. (iii) The utilization of exogenous purine deoxyribonucleosides is entirely dependent on a functional purine nucleoside phosphorylase. (iv) The pathway by which exogenous adenine is converted to guanine nucleotides in the presence of histidine requires a functional purine nucleoside phosphorylase. Evidence is presented that this pathway involves the conversion of adenine to adenosine, followed by deamination to inosine and subsequent phosphorolysis to hypoxanthine. Hypoxanthine is then converted to inosine monophosphate by inosine monophosphate pyrophosphorylase. The rate-limiting step in this pathway is the synthesis of adenosine from adenine due to lack of endogenous ribose-1 -phosphate.
I shall do no attempt at ridding myself of any trace of intentionality in the process (Hoffmeyer ... more I shall do no attempt at ridding myself of any trace of intentionality in the process (Hoffmeyer 1996 a). Natural translation is not a macro-level process but a process, which is played out by individual entities at many levels from single cells to organisms or even populations and perhaps ecosystems. To this day Darwinists have claimed that natural selection rests on purely hypothetical-deductive principles: Suppose a population of organisms reproduce to exceed its resource base. Suppose furthermore that heritable variants exist among individuals of the population. Then competition necessarily ensues and results in better adapted variants leaving more surviving offspring, i.e. in differential survival.
Life is the Action of Signs, 2011
This chapter introduces the very idea of a semiotic biology. Here, one needs to know what semiosi... more This chapter introduces the very idea of a semiotic biology. Here, one needs to know what semiosis, the action of sign, is, and why semiotics, the study of signs processes, provides a strong conceptual toolbox to approach a more complete theoretical biology. Sebeok's thesis that living systems are constituted as sign systems is a key point of departure for the emergent science of biosemiotics. The history of semiotics in the 20th century has been influenced deeply by structuralism in linguistics, and this "semiology" is related to a similar structuralist movement in theoretical biology. This, together with a variety of approaches that emphasize the properties of relation, signification, wholeness and contextuality, can be seen as forerunners to a more fully developed semiotic biology, that sees living creatures not just as passively subjected to universal laws of nature, but also as active systems of sign production, sign mediation and sign interpretation, that harness the physical laws in order to live and sometimes to make a more complex living. Such a biology is not in conflict with present-day biological research, but it promises to be a good guide towards a theoretical biology that does not turn the emergence of life -and with it, meaning and intentionality -into an incomprehensible mystery. Thus, biosemiotics would provide the basis for linking general biology with general linguistics.
Biosemiotics, 2008
Combining research approaches from biology, philosophy and linguistics, the emerging field of bio... more Combining research approaches from biology, philosophy and linguistics, the emerging field of biosemiotics proposes that animals, plants and single cells all engage in semiosis -the conversion of physical signals into conventional signs. This has important implications and applications for issues ranging from natural selection to animal behaviour and human psychology, leaving biosemiotics at the cutting edge of the research on the fundamentals of life.
Biosemiotics, 2008
Most bodies in this world do not have brains and the minority of animal species that do have brai... more Most bodies in this world do not have brains and the minority of animal species that do have brained bodies are descendents from species with more distributed or decentralized nervous systems. Thus, bodies were here first, and only relatively late in evolution did the bodies of a few species grow supplementary organs, brains, sophisticated enough to support a psychological life. Psychological life therefore from the beginning was embedded in and served as a tool for corporeal life. This paper discusses the semiotically controlled dynamics of bodily existence that has allowed the evolution of these seemingly 'unnatural' mental and even linguistic kinds of species. It is shown how the skin, on the one hand, makes us belong in the world, and on the other hand, is part of the huge landscape of membranes across which the semiotic self incessantly must be reconstituted. The discussion moves on to the intracellular world of signal transduction through which the activity of single cells are put to service for bodily needs. The paper further considers the mechanisms behind homeostasis and the semiotics of the psycho-neuro-endocrine integration in the body. The concept of semiotic emergence is introduced and a holistic marker hypothesis for why some animals may have an experiential life is suggested.
Semiotica, 2000
An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie. This site uses cookies to improve performance. If you... more An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie. This site uses cookies to improve performance. If your browser does not accept cookies, you cannot view this site. Setting Your Browser to Accept Cookies. There are many reasons why a cookie could not be set correctly. ...
Semiotica, 2000
ABSTRACT The fact that agency is an essential aspect of life introduces new explanatory avenues i... more ABSTRACT The fact that agency is an essential aspect of life introduces new explanatory avenues into the map of evolutionary thought. There is hardly any process in animate nature that is not, in one way or another, regulated communicatively, i.e., through the ability of living systems to read and interpret relevant signs in their environment. Semiotics – the science of signs – therefore ought to become a key tool for the “life sciences” in general and biology in particular. The paper analyzes the ways semiotic interactions in nature have been developed to scaffold the web of physiological, developmental, and ecological pathways. Semiotic scaffolding is only very indirectly based on genetic scaffolding. The gene products, the proteins, are not just molecules, but are always also semiotic tools, and what the genes really do is to specify the efficiency of semiotic modulators. In addition to the concept of the genome we need in biology a concept of the semiome: the entirety of an organism's semiotic tool set: i.e., the means by which the organisms of this species may extract significantly meaningful content from their surroundings and engage in intraor interspecific communicative behavior. The semiome thus defines the scope of the organism's cognitive and communicative activity. The theoretical question raised in this paper is the question of the interconnectedness between genomic and semiomic changes.
Semiotica, 2000
Résumé/Abstract The strange" forgetfulness of the notion of the sign" that John Deely p... more Résumé/Abstract The strange" forgetfulness of the notion of the sign" that John Deely puts as an emblem for the third of the Four ages of understanding (2001: xxx) may also be seen as an emblem for the so-called modern science that grew to unprecedented victories in ...
Semiotica, 2000
In his recent book, Ecology, the Ascendent Perspective, theoretical eco-logist Robert Ulanowicz d... more In his recent book, Ecology, the Ascendent Perspective, theoretical eco-logist Robert Ulanowicz delves at length into the sophisticated feeding strategy of the bladderwort (genus Utricularid) (Ulanowicz 1997). These humble plants live at the bottoms of lakes but do not feed ...
Semiotica, 2000
An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie. This site uses cookies to improve performance. If you... more An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie. This site uses cookies to improve performance. If your browser does not accept cookies, you cannot view this site. Setting Your Browser to Accept Cookies. There are many reasons why a cookie could not be set correctly. ...
Biosystems, 2001
The paper recommends a broadening of Howard Pattee's seminal distinction between a dynamic and a ... more The paper recommends a broadening of Howard Pattee's seminal distinction between a dynamic and a linguistic mode of living systems. It is observed that even the dynamic mode is always a semiotic mode although indexical and analogically coded rather than symbolic and digitally coded. The analogically coded messages corresponds to a kind of tacit knowledge hidden in macromolecular structure and shape (e.g. molecular complementarity) and in organismic architecture and communication, i.e. in the semiotic interactions of the body. It is claimed that the origin of referential processes is tied to the flow of historical singularities. The function of analog and digital codes in evolutionary systems is discussed.
Australian Feminist Studies, 2008
... 1999. A new causality for the understanding of the living. Special issue: Biosemiotica. Semio... more ... 1999. A new causality for the understanding of the living. Special issue: Biosemiotica. Semiotica , 127(1–4): 497–519. [CrossRef] View all references). ... 1999. Order out of indeterminacy. Special issue: Biosemiotica. Semiotica , 127(1–4): 321–43. [CrossRef] View all references). ...
Based on the conception of life and semiosis as co-extensive an attempt is given to classify cogn... more Based on the conception of life and semiosis as co-extensive an attempt is given to classify cognitive and communicative potentials of species according to the plasticity and articulatory sophistication they exhibit. A clear distinction is drawn between semiosis and perception, where perception is seen as a high-level activity, an integrated product of a mu,titude of semiotic interactions inside or between bodies. Previous attempts at finding progressive trends in evolution that might justify a scaling of species from primitive to advanced levels have not met with much success, but when evolution is considered in the light of semiosis such a scaling immediately catches the eye. The main purpose of this paper is to suggest a scaling of this progression in semiotic freedom into a series of distinct steps. The elleven steps suggested are: 1) molecular recognition, 2) prokaryote-eukaryote transformation (privatization of the genome), 3) division of labor in multicellular organisms (endosemiosis), 4) phenotypic plasticity, 5) sense perception, 6) behavioral choice, 7) active information gathering, 8) collaboration, deception, 9) learning and social intelligence, 10) sentience, 11) consciousness. In light of this, the paper finally discusses the conceptual framework for biosemiotic evolution. The evolution of biosemiotic capabilities does not take the form of an ongoing composition of simple signs (icons, indices, signals, etc.) into composite wholes. Rather, it takes the shape of the increasing subdivision and control of a primitive, holophrastic perception-action circuit already committed to "proto-propositions" (dicisigns) reliably guiding action already in the most primitive species.
Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology 19 (2) 2015
The concept of individuation has suffered from its being mostly connected with Jungian psychology... more The concept of individuation has suffered from its being mostly connected with Jungian psychology or nominalist philosophy. In this paper, “individuation” will be understood rather as a process; and in particular, as a series of stages (morphological and/or cognitive) that an organism passes through during its lifespan.
In most species, individuation is restricted to a short period in early life, as when birds acquire their species specific songs; while in humans - and a few other species of birds or mammals (although to a much lesser degree) - individuation is a life-long, open-ended process. In this understanding, individuation becomes narrowly connected to learning. And since learning necessarily depends on what is already learned, the trajectory of learning-based individuation is necessarily indefinite and dependent on the concrete chance events and steps whereby the process has proceeded. Semiotic individuation is a historical process, and this fact explains why systems biology, as established by Ludwig van Bertalanffy, has not been capable of meeting the hope, expressed long ago by Ernst Cassirer, of bridging the mechanicist-vitalist gap in biology. Instead, a semiotic approach is called for.
Human individuation, moreover, is special in a very important sense: language use implies that humans from earliest childhood inescapably become entangled in an 'as-if-world', a virtual reality, a story about who we are and how our life ‘here and now’ belongs within our own life-history, as well as within the greater pattern of the world around us. Human individuation is thus a double-tracked process, consisting in an incessant reconciliation or negotiation between the virtual reality that we have constructed in our minds and mind-independent reality as it impresses itself upon our lives. Human life cannot therefore be defined by its uniqueness as a particular genetic combination, but must be instead be defined by its uniqueness as a temporal outcome of semiotic individuation. Accordingly, this double-tracked character of human semiotic individuation implies that it is cast as just one particular outcome of a combinatorics with an infinite number of possible outcomes. It is suggested here that our ingrained feeling of possessing a free will is buried in this fact.
Biological Theory, 2009
Theses on the semiotic study of life as presented here provide a collectively formulated set of s... more Theses on the semiotic study of life as presented here provide a collectively formulated set of statements on what biology needs to be focused on in order to describe life as a process based on semiosis, or signaction. An aim of the biosemiotic approach is to explain how life evolves through all varieties of forms of communication and signification (including cellular adaptive behavior, animal communication, and human intellect) and to provide tools for grounding sign theories. We introduce the concept of semiotic threshold zone and analyze the concepts of semiosis, function, umwelt, and the like as the basic concepts for theoretical biology.
Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism, Jun 18, 2015
Life processes at all levels (from the genetic to the behavioral) are coordinated by semiotic int... more Life processes at all levels (from the genetic to the behavioral) are coordinated by semiotic interactions between cells, tissues, membranes, organs, or individuals and tuned through evolution to stabilize important functions. A stabilizing dynamics based on a system of semiotic scaffoldings implies that genes do not control the life of organisms, they merely scaffold it. The nature-nurture dynamics is thus far more complex and open than is often claimed. Contrary to physically based interactions, semiotic interactions do not depend on any direct causal connection between the sign vehicle (the representamen) and the effect. Semiotic interaction patterns therefore provide fast and versatile mechanisms for adaptations, mechanisms that depend on communication and “learning” rather than on genetic preformation. Seen as a stabilizing agency supporting the emergence of higher-order structure semiotic scaffolding is not, of course, exclusive for phylogenetic and ontogenetic development, it is also an important dynamical element in cultural evolution.
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Books by Jesper Hoffmeyer
According to the central thesis of biosemiotics, sign processes characterise all living systems and the very nature of life, and their diverse phenomena can be best explained via the dynamics and typology of sign relations. The authors are therefore presenting a deeper view on biological evolution, intentionality of organisms, the role of communication in the living world and the nature of sign systems — all topics which are described in this volume. This has important consequences on the methodology and epistemology of biology and study of life phenomena in general, which the authors aim to help the reader better understand."
Introduction: Bateson the precursor; J. Hoffmeyer: Introduction.pdf (draft version)
1. Angels fear revisited; M.C. Bateson
2. From thing to relation. On Bateson's bioanthropology; J. Hoffmeyer
3. What connects the map to the territory; T. Cashman
4. The pattern which connects pleroma to creature; T. Deacon, J. Sherman
5. Bateson’s method: double description; J. Hui, T. Cashman, and T. Deacon:
6. Gregory Bateson's relevance to current molecular biology; L. Bruni
7. Process ecology: Creatura in an open universe; R.E. Ulanowicz:
8. Connections in action – bridging implicit and explicit domains;
T. Shilhab, C. Gerlach
9. Bateson: biology with meaning; B. Goodwin.
10. Gregory Bateson's 'uncovery' of ecological aesthetics; P. Harries-Jones:
11. Collapsing the wave function of meaning: the epistemological matrix of talk-in
interaction; D. Favareau:
12. Re-enchanting evolution: transcending fundamentalisms through a mythopoetic
epistemology; G. Mengel
13. Bateson and Peirce on the pattern that connects and the sacred; S. Brier
14. Bateson, Peirce and the sign of the sacred; D. Eicher-Catt.
It is the aim of the present book to give a comprehensive account of the state of the art of this new approach to biology, and to explore the scientific landscapes brought to life through a broader application of its core idea. It should be emphasized here that biosemiotics does not imply any denial of the anchoring of biological processes in well-established physical and chemical lawfulness. Rather, it is claimed that life-processes are both part of – and are organized in obedience to – a semiotic dynamic, and that this fact cannot be omitted from a true science of life.
The book consists of three parts and a postscript. Part one contains a general discussion of the biosemiotic project as a strategy in life science and Part two contains a detailed exposition of biosemiotics as it may be employed in the understanding of life processes at different levels of animate nature. Part 3 addresses the radical consequences that the biosemiotic perspective will have on our thinking in a range of other areas: i.e., the origin of language, ethics, aesthetics, biomedicine, environmental understanding, health, cognitive science and biotechnology. In the Postscript is given a brief account of the historical development of the discipline, as well as a prognosis for its future growth.
Papers by Jesper Hoffmeyer
In most species, individuation is restricted to a short period in early life, as when birds acquire their species specific songs; while in humans - and a few other species of birds or mammals (although to a much lesser degree) - individuation is a life-long, open-ended process. In this understanding, individuation becomes narrowly connected to learning. And since learning necessarily depends on what is already learned, the trajectory of learning-based individuation is necessarily indefinite and dependent on the concrete chance events and steps whereby the process has proceeded. Semiotic individuation is a historical process, and this fact explains why systems biology, as established by Ludwig van Bertalanffy, has not been capable of meeting the hope, expressed long ago by Ernst Cassirer, of bridging the mechanicist-vitalist gap in biology. Instead, a semiotic approach is called for.
Human individuation, moreover, is special in a very important sense: language use implies that humans from earliest childhood inescapably become entangled in an 'as-if-world', a virtual reality, a story about who we are and how our life ‘here and now’ belongs within our own life-history, as well as within the greater pattern of the world around us. Human individuation is thus a double-tracked process, consisting in an incessant reconciliation or negotiation between the virtual reality that we have constructed in our minds and mind-independent reality as it impresses itself upon our lives. Human life cannot therefore be defined by its uniqueness as a particular genetic combination, but must be instead be defined by its uniqueness as a temporal outcome of semiotic individuation. Accordingly, this double-tracked character of human semiotic individuation implies that it is cast as just one particular outcome of a combinatorics with an infinite number of possible outcomes. It is suggested here that our ingrained feeling of possessing a free will is buried in this fact.
According to the central thesis of biosemiotics, sign processes characterise all living systems and the very nature of life, and their diverse phenomena can be best explained via the dynamics and typology of sign relations. The authors are therefore presenting a deeper view on biological evolution, intentionality of organisms, the role of communication in the living world and the nature of sign systems — all topics which are described in this volume. This has important consequences on the methodology and epistemology of biology and study of life phenomena in general, which the authors aim to help the reader better understand."
Introduction: Bateson the precursor; J. Hoffmeyer: Introduction.pdf (draft version)
1. Angels fear revisited; M.C. Bateson
2. From thing to relation. On Bateson's bioanthropology; J. Hoffmeyer
3. What connects the map to the territory; T. Cashman
4. The pattern which connects pleroma to creature; T. Deacon, J. Sherman
5. Bateson’s method: double description; J. Hui, T. Cashman, and T. Deacon:
6. Gregory Bateson's relevance to current molecular biology; L. Bruni
7. Process ecology: Creatura in an open universe; R.E. Ulanowicz:
8. Connections in action – bridging implicit and explicit domains;
T. Shilhab, C. Gerlach
9. Bateson: biology with meaning; B. Goodwin.
10. Gregory Bateson's 'uncovery' of ecological aesthetics; P. Harries-Jones:
11. Collapsing the wave function of meaning: the epistemological matrix of talk-in
interaction; D. Favareau:
12. Re-enchanting evolution: transcending fundamentalisms through a mythopoetic
epistemology; G. Mengel
13. Bateson and Peirce on the pattern that connects and the sacred; S. Brier
14. Bateson, Peirce and the sign of the sacred; D. Eicher-Catt.
It is the aim of the present book to give a comprehensive account of the state of the art of this new approach to biology, and to explore the scientific landscapes brought to life through a broader application of its core idea. It should be emphasized here that biosemiotics does not imply any denial of the anchoring of biological processes in well-established physical and chemical lawfulness. Rather, it is claimed that life-processes are both part of – and are organized in obedience to – a semiotic dynamic, and that this fact cannot be omitted from a true science of life.
The book consists of three parts and a postscript. Part one contains a general discussion of the biosemiotic project as a strategy in life science and Part two contains a detailed exposition of biosemiotics as it may be employed in the understanding of life processes at different levels of animate nature. Part 3 addresses the radical consequences that the biosemiotic perspective will have on our thinking in a range of other areas: i.e., the origin of language, ethics, aesthetics, biomedicine, environmental understanding, health, cognitive science and biotechnology. In the Postscript is given a brief account of the historical development of the discipline, as well as a prognosis for its future growth.
In most species, individuation is restricted to a short period in early life, as when birds acquire their species specific songs; while in humans - and a few other species of birds or mammals (although to a much lesser degree) - individuation is a life-long, open-ended process. In this understanding, individuation becomes narrowly connected to learning. And since learning necessarily depends on what is already learned, the trajectory of learning-based individuation is necessarily indefinite and dependent on the concrete chance events and steps whereby the process has proceeded. Semiotic individuation is a historical process, and this fact explains why systems biology, as established by Ludwig van Bertalanffy, has not been capable of meeting the hope, expressed long ago by Ernst Cassirer, of bridging the mechanicist-vitalist gap in biology. Instead, a semiotic approach is called for.
Human individuation, moreover, is special in a very important sense: language use implies that humans from earliest childhood inescapably become entangled in an 'as-if-world', a virtual reality, a story about who we are and how our life ‘here and now’ belongs within our own life-history, as well as within the greater pattern of the world around us. Human individuation is thus a double-tracked process, consisting in an incessant reconciliation or negotiation between the virtual reality that we have constructed in our minds and mind-independent reality as it impresses itself upon our lives. Human life cannot therefore be defined by its uniqueness as a particular genetic combination, but must be instead be defined by its uniqueness as a temporal outcome of semiotic individuation. Accordingly, this double-tracked character of human semiotic individuation implies that it is cast as just one particular outcome of a combinatorics with an infinite number of possible outcomes. It is suggested here that our ingrained feeling of possessing a free will is buried in this fact.
individuation process poses very different challenges in the three kingdoms of plants, fungi and animals, and the solutions found to these differences are discussed. In the same time as multicellularity ushered life into the epoch of mortality it logically also led to the appearance of fertilization and thereby the need for a whole new set of elaborate semiotic scaffoldings. Multicellularity also opened the door to the formation symbiotic relations where cells with different genomes might collaborate or at least coexist inside the same body.
All in all multicellularity led to an enormous diversification both of morphology space and the space of sensomotoric elaborations. New means for scaffolding of this expansion and diversification of possible life forms into functional patterns called for a corresponding growth in the space of semiotic tools (chemical processes, heat, light, sound, volatile chemicals, magnetism, radiation of many sorts, etc.) and initiated a growth in semiotic freedom, that has continued to our days.
Publication originale anglaise : « Semiotic freedom: an emerging force », dans P. C. W. Davies & N. H. Gregersen (dir.), Information and the Nature of Reality. From Physics to Metaphysics, Cambridge (G.-B.)/New York, Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 185-204. Traduction : Simon Levesque.