DOCSLIB.ORG

Relational Agents: Effecting Change Through Human-Computer Relationships

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Relational Agents: Effecting Change Through Human-Computer Relationships Relational Agents: Effecting Change through Human-Computer Relationships by Timothy Wallace Bickmore Master of Science, Computer Science, Arizona State University, 1986 Bachelor of Science and Engineering, Computer Systems Engineering Arizona State University, 1985 Submitted to the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, School of Architecture and Planning, In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology February 2003 © 2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, All rights reserved. Author January 31st, 2003 Certified by Rosalind W. Picard Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Thesis Supervisor Certified by Justine Cassell Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Thesis Supervisor Accepted by Andrew B. Lippman Chairperson, Departmental Committee on Graduate Students 2 Relational Agents: Effecting Change through Human-Computer Relationships by Timothy Wallace Bickmore Submitted to the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, School of Architecture and Planning, In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Abstract What kinds of social relationships can people have with computers? Are there activities that computers can engage in that actively draw people into relationships with them? What are the potential benefits to the people who participate in these human-computer relationships? To address these questions this work introduces a theory of Relational Agents, which are computational artifacts designed to build and maintain long-term, social-emotional relationships with their users. These can be purely software humanoid animated agents--as developed in this work--but they can also be non-humanoid or embodied in various physical forms, from robots, to pets, to jewelry, clothing, hand-helds, and other interactive devices. Central to the notion of relationship is that it is a persistent construct, spanning multiple interactions; thus, Relational Agents are explicitly designed to remember past history and manage future expectations in their interactions with users. Finally, relationships are fundamentally social and emotional, and detailed knowledge of human social psychology--with a particular emphasis on the role of affect--must be incorporated into these agents if they are to effectively leverage the mechanisms of human social cognition in order to build relationships in the most natural manner possible. People build relationships primarily through the use of language, and primarily within the context of face-to-face conversation. Embodied Conversational Agents--anthropomorphic computer characters that emulate the experience of face-to-face conversation--thus provide the substrate for this work, and so the relational activities provided by the theory will primarily be specific types of verbal and nonverbal conversational behaviors used by people to negotiate and maintain relationships. This work also provides an analysis of the types of applications in which having a human-computer relationship is advantageous to the human participant. In addition to applications in which the relationship is an end in itself (e.g., in entertainment systems), human-computer relationships are important in tasks in which the human is attempting to undergo some change in behavior or cognitive or emotional state. One such application is explored here: a system for assisting the user through a month-long health behavior change program in the area of exercise adoption. This application involves the research, design and implementation of relational agents as well as empirical evaluation of their ability to build relationships and effect change over a series of interactions with users. Thesis Supervisors: Rosalind W. Picard, Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Justine Cassell, Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences 3 4 Doctoral Dissertation Committee Thesis Co-Advisor Rosalind W. Picard, Sc.D. Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences M.I.T. Program in Media Arts and Sciences Thesis Co-Advisor Justine Cassell, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences M.I.T. Program in Media Arts and Sciences Thesis Reader Amanda J. Gruber, M.D. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Harvard Medical School Thesis Reader Candace L. Sidner, Ph.D. Senior Research Scientist Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratory January 2003 5 6 Acknowledgements Thanks, first and foremost, to a wonderfully supportive and helpful committee. Roz provided the initial inspiration that led me into the field of health behavior change, and I could not have pulled this project off without her having supported my work through to its completion. My discussions with Candy--ranging from philosophy to linguistics to artificial intelligence--were always insightful, and it has been a real pleasure to interact with someone who cares deeply about both theoretical issues and building useful systems. Amanda gave generously of her time and knowledge, even before I asked her to serve on my committee, and provided me with the crucial knowledge of how various therapeutic approaches to change are applied in a clinical setting. Justine taught me to look at human behavior in a whole new way. Thanks also to behavior change researchers at the Cancer Prevention Research Center at the University of Rhode Island, especially Wayne Velicer who helped me develop the experimental design for the behavior change study. Bryan Blissmer and Deb Riebe gave me essential tips and feedback on how to structure an exercise adoption study. My work was supported by the many wonderful sponsors of the MIT Media Lab and NSF ROLE grant REC-0087768. Development of the FitTrack system and study was a huge undertaking, involving lots of people over the year or so it was in development. Ian Gouldstone was designer and animator extraordinaire, who designed the characters used in the system, and consulted on various aspects of the system's design. Marlisa Febbriello of the Health Education department at MIT Medical provided invaluable help in developing the educational content used in the system. Julie Stalma and Dorri Lee were the exercise trainers who acted as role models for the exercise advisor character. Laura Packer wrote many of the exercise stories used in the system. Nancy Alvarado of IBM Research provided useful feedback on the facial expressions used by the character. Anna Pandolfo did most of the subject intake interviews, and provided feedback on various aspects of the experimental design. Sherry Turkle provided great suggestions for the qualitative interviews done at the end of the study. Dan Ariely provided invaluable feedback on the statistical analysis of data from the study. Noah Fields and Jeannie Finks of the Media Lab's NeCSys group provided many helpful suggestions and software and support for the web server and relational database used in the study. Karen Liu helped design some of the empathy dialogue networks in the system. Jonathan Klein provided lots of useful feedback on the system design. Thanks to Mindy Chang, Chris Cary and Temitope Sibun-- undergraduate researchers--who put many pieces of the system in place over the Summer of 2002, and to Tom Stocky for patiently tutoring them. And, thanks to the one hundred-plus study participants who proved that it was all worthwhile. The REA small talk study also involved a number of other people, including all the past developers of the REA system (notably Hannes Vilhjálmsson, Lee Campbell and Hao Yan), and folks who contributed to the design, implementation and execution of parts of the experiment, including Jennifer Smith, Elisabeth Sylvan, and Ian Gouldstone (as the "wizard"). Thanks to Linda Peterson and Pat Solakoff for essential advice on the mechanics of the Ph.D. program, and for their support through turbulent times. A warm thanks to my work buddies and moral support network for the last four-and-a- half years, Hannes Vilhjálmsson and Kimiko Ryokai. Thanks also for the support and 7 feedback from past and current members of the Gesture and Narrative Language and Affective Computing groups at the Media Lab. Thanks to my family for pretending to understand why I came back to school after a decade in industry, and to my girls, Katie and Olivia, for giving up their father during my time at MIT. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my partner Jennifer, who provided the emotional and social support I needed to get through this. Not only did she keep me sane during this time, but she played a substantial role as sounding board and proof-reader, and implemented and tested a significant portion of the FitTrack dialogue networks and other parts of the system. 8 Table of Contents Abstract..................................................................................................................................3 Doctoral Dissertation Committee........................................................................................5 Acknowledgements ...............................................................................................................7 Table of Contents..................................................................................................................9 Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................15 1.1 Motivation: The Importance of Personal Relationships ...........................................15 1.2 Relational Agents......................................................................................................17
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Review: Marcello Barbieri (Ed) (2007) Introduction to Biosemiotics. the New Biological Synthesis
    tripleC 5(3): 104-109, 2007 ISSN 1726-670X http://tripleC.uti.at Review: Marcello Barbieri (Ed) (2007) Introduction to Biosemiotics. The new biological synthesis. Dordrecht: Springer Günther Witzany telos – Philosophische Praxis Vogelsangstr. 18c A-5111-Buermoos/Salzburg Austria E-mail: [email protected] 1 Thematic background without utterances we act as non-uttering indi- viduals being dependent on the discourse de- Maybe it is no chance that the discovery of the rived meaning processes of a linguistic (e.g. sci- genetic code occurred during the hot phase of entific) community. philosophy of science discourse about the role of This position marks the primary difference to language in generating models of scientific ex- the subject of knowledge of Kantian knowledge planation. The code-metaphor was introduced theories wherein one subject alone in principle parallel to other linguistic terms to denote lan- could be able to generate sentences in which it guage like features of the nucleic acid sequence generates knowledge. This abstractive fallacy molecules such as “code without commas” was ruled out in the early 50s of the last century (Francis Crick). At the same time the 30 years of being replaced by the “community of investiga- trying to establish an exact scientific language to tors” (Peirce) represented by the scientific com- delimit objective sentences from non-objective munity in which every single scientist is able the ones derived one of his peaks in the linguistic place his utterance looking for being integrated turn. in the discourse community in which his utter- ances will be proven whether they are good ar- 1.1 Changing subjects of knowledge guments or not.
    [Show full text]
  • Relational Categories
    Gentner, D., & Kurtz, K. (2005). Learning and using relational categories. In W. K. Ahn, R. L. Goldstone, B. C. Love, A. B. Markman & P. W. Wolff (Eds.), Categorization inside and outside the laboratory. Washington, DC: APA. Relational Categories Dedre Gentner and Kenneth J Kurtz Relational Categories This chapter is concerned with the acquisition and use of relational categories. By relational category, we mean a category whose membership is determined by a common relational structure rather than by common properties. For instance, for X to be a bridge, X must connect two other entities or points; for X to be a carnivore, X must eat animals. Relational categories contrast with entity categories such as tulip or camel, whose members share many intrinsic properties. Relational categories cohere on the basis of a core relationship ful- filled by all members. This relation may be situation-specific (e.g., passenger or accident) or enduring (e.g., carnivore or ratio). Relational categories abound in ordinary language. Some are restricted in their arguments: For example, car- nivores are animals who eat other animals. But for many relational catego- ries, the arguments can range widely: for example, a bridge can connect two concrete locations, or two generations, or two abstract ideas. As with bridge, the instances of a relational category can have few or no intrinsic properties in common with one another. Research on categories has mostly ignored relational categories, focusing instead on entity categories-categories that can be characterized in terms of intrinsic similarity among members, like those shown in Figure 9.1. Further, as Moos and Sloutsky (2004) point out, theories of categorization have often oper- ated under the assumption that all concepts are fundamentally alike.
    [Show full text]
  • MEANING, SEMIOTECHNOLOGIES and PARTICIPATORY MEDIA Ganaele Langlois
    CULTURE MACHINE VOL 12 • 2011 MEANING, SEMIOTECHNOLOGIES AND PARTICIPATORY MEDIA Ganaele Langlois Summary What is the critical purpose of studying meaning in a digital environment which is characterized by the proliferation of meanings? In particular, online participatory media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia and Twitter offer a constant stream of user-produced meanings. In this new context of seemingly infinite ‘semiotic democracy’ (Fiske, 1987), where anybody can say anything and have a chance to be heard, it seems that the main task is to find ways to deal with and analyze an ever-expanding field of signification. This article offers a different perspective on the question of meaning by arguing that if we are to study meaning to understand the cultural logic of digital environments, we should not focus on the content of what users are saying online, but rather on the conditions within which such a thing as user expression is possible in the first place. That is, this article argues that we should focus less on signification, and more on the question of regimes of the production and circulation of meaning. By expanding the question of meaning and using it to explore commercial participatory media platforms, this article offers a new framework for looking at online communication: one that decentres human subjects from the production of meaning and that acknowledges the technocultural dimension of meaning as constituted by a range of heterogeneous representational and informational technologies, cultural practices and linguistic values. Online participatory media platforms offer an exemplar of the new conditions of the production and circulation of meaning beyond the human level: they offer rich environments where user input is constantly augmented, ranked, classified and linked with other types of content.
    [Show full text]
  • Semiosphere As a Model of Human Cognition
    494 Aleksei Semenenko Sign Systems Studies 44(4), 2016, 494–510 Homo polyglottus: Semiosphere as a model of human cognition Aleksei Semenenko Department of Slavic and Baltic Languages Stockholm University 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden e-mail: [email protected] Abstract. Th e semiosphere is arguably the most infl uential concept developed by Juri Lotman, which has been reinterpreted in a variety of ways. Th is paper returns to Lotman’s original “anthropocentric” understanding of semiosphere as a collective intellect/consciousness and revisits the main arguments of Lotman’s discussion of human vs. nonhuman semiosis in order to position it in the modern context of cognitive semiotics and the question of human uniqueness in particular. In contrast to the majority of works that focus on symbolic consciousness and multimodal communication as specifi cally human traits, Lotman accentuates polyglottism and dialogicity as the unique features of human culture. Formulated in this manner, the concept of semiosphere is used as a conceptual framework for the study of human cognition as well as human cognitive evolution. Keywords: semiosphere; cognition; polyglottism; dialogue; multimodality; Juri Lotman Th e concept of semiosphere is arguably the most infl uential concept developed by the semiotician and literary scholar Juri Lotman (1922–1993), a leader of the Tartu- Moscow School of Semiotics and a founder of semiotics of culture. In a way, it was the pinnacle of Lotman’s lifelong study of culture as an intrinsic component of human individual
    [Show full text]
  • Media Theory and Semiotics: Key Terms and Concepts Binary
    Media Theory and Semiotics: Key Terms and Concepts Binary structures and semiotic square of oppositions Many systems of meaning are based on binary structures (masculine/ feminine; black/white; natural/artificial), two contrary conceptual categories that also entail or presuppose each other. Semiotic interpretation involves exposing the culturally arbitrary nature of this binary opposition and describing the deeper consequences of this structure throughout a culture. On the semiotic square and logical square of oppositions. Code A code is a learned rule for linking signs to their meanings. The term is used in various ways in media studies and semiotics. In communication studies, a message is often described as being "encoded" from the sender and then "decoded" by the receiver. The encoding process works on multiple levels. For semiotics, a code is the framework, a learned a shared conceptual connection at work in all uses of signs (language, visual). An easy example is seeing the kinds and levels of language use in anyone's language group. "English" is a convenient fiction for all the kinds of actual versions of the language. We have formal, edited, written English (which no one speaks), colloquial, everyday, regional English (regions in the US, UK, and around the world); social contexts for styles and specialized vocabularies (work, office, sports, home); ethnic group usage hybrids, and various kinds of slang (in-group, class-based, group-based, etc.). Moving among all these is called "code-switching." We know what they mean if we belong to the learned, rule-governed, shared-code group using one of these kinds and styles of language.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Semiosphere, Revisited
    Yorgos Marinakis On the Semiosphere, Revisited Abstract The semiosphere is frequently described as a topos of complexification, namely discontinuous or heterogeneous, recursive or self-reflexive, stochastic, radically subjective, and capable of simultaneous multiple perspectives. While the topos of complexification describes the gross morphology of a model, it is not a model adequate for explaining phenomena or making predictions. The ecological theory of dual hierarchies is proposed as a framework for developing models of the semiosphere that are appropriately limited in scope and scale. In particular the semiosphere is modeled as a dual hierarchy of semiotic spaces, the dual hierarchies corresponding to the semiosis that is occurring within the dual hierarchies of ecological organization. This framework immediately solves several theoretical problems, such as clearing up conceptual inconsistencies in Lotman's concept of semiosphere. Keywords: semiotics, semiosphere, ecosystem, hierarchy theory, category theory, semiotic triad Introduction Juri Lotman's (2005) On the semiosphere, first published in 1984, introduced the concept of the semiosphere and attempted to describe its gross structural features in broad terms. The semiosphere is defined as the semiotic space outside of which semiosis cannot exist, where semiosis is any form of activity, conduct, or process that involves signs. On its face, the structure of Lotman's concept of semiosphere has difficulties, but by focusing on these difficulties one loses sight of the value of the concept. Lotman's conceives of the semiosphere as a space that carries an abstract character and possessing signs, which space he asserts is not metaphorical (therefore not abstract?) but specific (therefore material and not abstract?).
    [Show full text]
  • Ferdinand De Saussure . . . Together with His Two Great Contemporaries
    MSM01 6/18/2004 6:12 PM Page 8 Ferdinand de Saussure...together with his two great contemporaries, Emile Durkheim in sociology and Sigmund Freud in psychology...helped to set the study of human behavior on a new footing. These three thinkers realized that one could not approach an adequate understanding of human practices and institutions if one treated human behavior as a series of events similar to events in the physical world...Human behavior is different. When studying human behavior the investigator cannot simply dismiss as subjective impres- sions the meaning it has for members of a society. If people see an action as impolite, that is a crucial fact, a social fact. To ignore the meanings actions and objects have in society would be to study mere physical events. Anyone ana- lyzing human behavior is concerned not with events themselves but with events that have meaning. Saussure, Freud, and Durkheim also saw that the study of human behavior misses its best opportunities if it tries to trace the historical causes of indi- vidual events. Instead, it must focus on the functions events have within a general social framework. It must treat social facts as part of a system of con- ventions and values... How does one cope, systematically, with the apparent chaos of the modern world? This question was being asked in a variety of fields, and the replies which Saussure gives – that you cannot hope to attain an absolute or Godlike view of things but must choose a perspective, and that within this perspective objects are defined by their relations with one another, rather than by essences of some kind – are exemplary.
    [Show full text]
  • Decoding Visuals: the Social Semiotics of Make Love Not Walls
    Decoding visuals: The social semiotics of Make Love Not Walls Pihla Adalmiina Raevaara Malmö University Media and Communication Studies: Master’s Thesis School of Arts & Communication K3 Supervisor: Margareta Melin Submission date: 04.11.2019 Word count: 16139 ​ An abstract Fashion is an industry that reflects on society and comments on it through advertisement campaigns. Besides increasing brand awareness and growing sales, some fashion brands create campaigns for e.g. protesting and voicing out socio-cultural and political statements. The Italian fashion brand Diesel has taken part in discussions related to civil, social and political issues that touch upon certain issues apparent in our society. This thesis aims to investigate how Diesel's Make Love Not Walls campaign visual images construct meanings and also explore what kind of culturally coded myths are evoked in the images. The methodological foundation and approach of the study are exemplified by complementing cognitive theories that attribute the construction of images from the audience perspective and understanding of visual metaphors in certain cultural contexts. When formulating the theoretical framework for the social semiotic analysis, the concept of socio-cultural and political participation is taken into consideration. This study adopts a visual social semiotic perspective to investigate how visual images themselves are constructed to cue culturally coded metaphors. The visual realization of metaphors is elucidated based on Barthes’ theory of Myths. It is found that most types of visual myths identified by visual social semiotics can be explained within the framework. Myths in the campaign are analyzed in terms of their persuasive effects. Finally, it can be concluded that the social semiotic framework is able to provide a comprehensive account of the visual realization in the construction of meanings, and in addition, the study offers a cognitive explanation of how resources like framing, composition and image angles acquire meanings.
    [Show full text]
  • A Short History of Biosemiotics
    Biosemiotics (2009) 2:221–245 DOI 10.1007/s12304-009-9042-8 ORIGINAL PAPER A Short History of Biosemiotics Marcello Barbieri Received: 20 March 2009 /Accepted: 14 April 2009 / Published online: 6 May 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract Biosemiotics is the synthesis of biology and semiotics, and its main purpose is to show that semiosis is a fundamental component of life, i.e., that signs and meaning exist in all living systems. This idea started circulating in the 1960s and was proposed independently from enquires taking place at both ends of the Scala Naturae. At the molecular end it was expressed by Howard Pattee’s analysis of the genetic code, whereas at the human end it took the form of Thomas Sebeok’s investigation into the biological roots of culture. Other proposals appeared in the years that followed and gave origin to different theoretical frameworks, or different schools, of biosemiotics. They are: (1) the physical biosemiotics of Howard Pattee and its extension in Darwinian biosemiotics by Howard Pattee and by Terrence Deacon, (2) the zoosemiotics proposed by Thomas Sebeok and its extension in sign biosemiotics developed by Thomas Sebeok and by Jesper Hoffmeyer, (3) the code biosemiotics of Marcello Barbieri and (4) the hermeneutic biosemiotics of Anton Markoš. The differences that exist between the schools are a consequence of their different models of semiosis, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. In reality they go much deeper and concern the very nature of the new discipline. Is biosemiotics only a new way of looking at the known facts of biology or does it predict new facts? Does biosemiotics consist of testable hypotheses? Does it add anything to the history of life and to our understanding of evolution? These are the major issues of the young discipline, and the purpose of the present paper is to illustrate them by describing the origin and the historical development of its main schools.
    [Show full text]
  • Post-Structuralism Dialogue Between Postmodernism and the Catholic Tradi- and the So-Called Russian Formalists
    Post-Structuralism dialogue between postmodernism and the Catholic tradi- and the so-called Russian formalists. Among the most tion is ongoing and has already borne copious fruit. important representatives of post-structuralist philosophy are Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), Gilles Deleuze (1925– SEE ALSO DECONSTRUCTIONISM;DIFFERENCE;LOGOCENTRISM;RE- 1995), Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998), Jacques ALISM;RELATIVISM. Lacan (1901–1981), Michel Foucault (1926–1984), and Slavoj Žižek and his school. Though many of the BIBLIOGRAPHY representatives have French backgrounds, their theories De Schrijver, Georges. “Postmodernity and the Withdrawal of have had influence all over the world, especially in the the Divine: A Challenge for Theology.” In Sacramental Pres- areas of philosophy of language, ETHICS, NEOPRAGMA- ence in a Postmodern Context, edited by Lieven Boeve and TISM, literary theory, and gender studies. In the United Lambert Leijssen, 39–64. Louvain, Belgium: Leuven University Press, 2001. States, the works of Richard Rorty (1931–2007) and Judith Butler are often associated with post-structuralism. John Paul II. Fides et ratio. [Encyclical Letter on the Relation- ship between Faith and Reason]. September 14, 1998. http:// What distinguishes structuralism from post-structuralism www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/docu is not always easy to identify, but as a general rule post- ments/hf_jp-ii_enc_15101998_fides-et-ratio_en.html. structuralists see their theories as based on structuralism’s Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on philosophy of language (Saussure) and anthropology Knowledge. Translated by Geoff Bennington and Brian Mas- (Lévi-Strauss), but they apply those insights to a wider sumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Biosemiotics Introduction to Biosemiotics
    Introduction to Biosemiotics Introduction to Biosemiotics The New Biological Synthesis Edited by Marcello Barbieri University of Ferrara, Italy Library of Congress Control Number: 2008922939 ISBN 978-1-4020-4813-5 (HB) ISBN 978-1-4020-8344-0 (PB) ISBN 978-1-4020-4814-2 (e-book) Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. www.springer.com Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. To Thomas Sebeok (1920–2001) and to his vision of a synthesis between Biology and Semiotics TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial ix Marcello Barbieri Part 1 – Historical Background 1. The Evolutionary History of Biosemiotics 1 Donald Favareau 2. Semiosis in Evolution 69 Tuomo Jämsä 3. Has Biosemiotics Come of Age? and Postscript 101 Marcello Barbieri Part 2 – Theoretical Issues 4. The Necessity of Biosemiotics: Matter-Symbol Complementarity 115 H. H. Pattee 5. What is the Scope of Biosemiotics? Information in Living Systems 133 Stanley N. Salthe 6. Semiotic Scaffolding of Living Systems 149 Jesper Hoffmeyer 7. Biosemiotics and Biophysics – The Fundamental Approaches to the Study of Life 167 Kalevi Kull 8. Is the Cell a Semiotic System? 179 Marcello Barbieri 9.
    [Show full text]
  • The Paradigm of Peircean Biosemiotics
    30 Søren Brier Copenhagen Business School, department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, [email protected] The Paradigm of Peircean Biosemiotics Abstract The failure of modern science to create a common scientific framework for nature and consciousness makes it necessary to look for broader foundations in a new philosophy. Although controversial for modern science, the Peircean semiotic, evolutionary, pragmatic and triadic philosophy has been the only modern conceptual framework that can support that transdisciplinary change in our view of knowing that bridges the two cultures and transgresses Cartesian dualism. It therefore seems ideal to build on it for modern biosemiotics and can, in combination with Luhmann’s theory of communication, encompass modern information theory, complexity science and thermodynamics. It allows focus on the connection between the concept of codes and signs in living systems, and makes it possible to re-conceptualize both internal and external processes of the human body, mind and communication in models that fit into one framework. Keywords: autopoiesis, biosemiotics, Cybersemiotics, Peirce, Sebeok, Hoffmeyer, Kull, Emmeche, Brier, zoösemiotics, phytosemiotics, endosemiotics, ethology, Copenhagen School of Biosemiotics Introduction Semiotics (from the Greek word for sign) is a transdisciplinary study and doctrine of signs in general including signification, perception, communication, codes, media , language and the sign systems used parallel with language. Another way to define it is as the science of signs and their life in society. Code is broadly defined as: everything of a more systematic/orderly nature that the source and the receiver need to know a priori about the relation between the signs in a message both in analogue and digital form, and the area of reality they refer to in order to interpret it.
    [Show full text]