Creation of the relevant next: How living systems capture the power of the adjacent possible through sign use.

摘要: Abstract Stuart Kauffman's revolutionary notion of the Adjacent Possible as an organizing principle in nature shares much common with logician Charles S. Peirce's understanding universe ever-unfolding ‘process ontology’ possibility space that is brought about through recursive interaction genuine possibility, transiently actualized order, and emergent (but never fully deterministic) lawfulness. Proceeding from these three fundamental categories becoming-as-being, Peirce developed a complimentary logic sign relations that, along Estonian biologist Jakob von Uexkull's action-as-meaning-imprinting Umwelt theory, informs work currently being undertaken under aegis Biosemiotics. In this paper, I will highlight deep affinities between Biosemiotics' hybrid Peircean/Uexkullian “sign” concept, by which living systems – both individuals aggregate (i.e., co-actors, communities lineages) “capture” relevant aspects their immediately given preserve those recipes for future possibilities biologically instantiated signs. By so doing, move into “collapsing wave function” not just probabilistically, but guided system-internal values arising previously captured are replicable system biases generative constraints. The influence such valenced end-directed action world introduces phenomenon Relevant (and deterministic, or even stochastic) Next. My argument paper organisms live out lives perpetually confronted negotiating omnipresent Next, informed biological capture lineage's) previous engagements doing so. And because agent-object-action relationships signs guidance organism, only “successful survival strategies” within (as traditional accounts Natural Selection), well entire complement untaken still veridical real-world spaces inseparably ‘entangled’ sign, awaiting exploration organism. Thus, while all current-context dependant next-context creating, emergence ever-more complex semiotic capabilities has expanded immediate-next-action exponentially, pre-given, singly ordered world, emergent, many ends-directed promiscuous, unforeseeable interacting telos. goal Biosemiotics to understand explore world.