Self-Organization and Peirce’s Notion of Communication and Semiosis

Abstract

Semiosis can be described as an emergent self-organizing process in a complex system of distributed sign users interacting locally and mutually affecting each other. Contextually grounded, semiosis is characterized as a pattern that emerges through the cooperation between agents in a communication act, which concerns an utterer, a sign, and an interpreter. Some implications of this approach are explored in the context of Artificial Life experimental protocols. To model communication as a self-organized process, the authors create a scenario to investigate a potentially self-organizing dynamic of communication, via local interactions. According to the results, a systemic process (symbol-based communication) emerges as a global pattern (a common repertoire of signs) from local interactions, without any external or central control.