In: Semiotics Theory and Applications ISBN 978-1-61728-992-7
Editor: Steven C. Hamel © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Chapter 8
SEMIOTIC CONSTRAINTS OF THE
BIOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION
Abir U. Igamberdiev
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Department of Biology,
St. John‘s, NL, Canada A1B 3X9ABSTRACT
Living systems are self-maintained semiotic structures open for material and energy
flows but ―closed for efficient causation‖ (Robert Rosen). The factor which introduces
the organizational invariance and generates such a closure has a fundamentally semiotic
nature.
The system having the semiotic parameter of organizational invariance physically
exhibits stable non-equilibrium and is able to transform and evolve according to basic
symmetric and combinatorial rules. The living process is self-referential: the biological
system in its development and reaction to external stimuli makes an internal choice by
reducing indeterminacy of the potential field in interaction with the environment. In other
words, the system measures itself as embedded into the recognized part of the
environment, the Umwelt.
This reflective action is based on the semiotic structure of living system, which
includes the inherited description with rigid grammar and the flexible combinatorial
rearrangements generating possibilities of internal choice. The inherited description itself
can evolve towards incorporation of the environmental inputs as recognized (i.e.
signified) by the system. The social evolution starts when the parameters designating the
world as a whole and representing the actual infinity are encoded within the semiotic
system. This allows the semiotic expansion of the Umwelt by using the external elements
as labor tools, by directing human-driven evolution, and by discovering new energy
sources. E-mail: [email protected]