expansions
25 Apr.2024,*NEW* scientism — the belief in science.
9 Apr.2024, choice — snooker balls v. butterflies.
Einstein's gestalt — the delusion of consciousness.
meta-expression — the metalanguage of life.
ontogeny — the origin of self.
expression — the universal language.
misc.
speakers corner — Burke's internet.
algorithms of cupidity — the mother of AI.
inclosure — of new towns and mass eviction.
awoken — the revisionist history of Whigs.
our kingdom — in a world of domains.
copy left — on new cabals and subtle designs.
called from: #B2.
semiotic life
..unlike non-living processes, the categorization of substances through processes of molecular recognition, as exhibited e.g. at the level of bacterial chemotaxis, already realizes the split between objects and properties. In many cases, several different compounds may serve exactly the same functional end implying that the process is fallible (while it makes little sense, by contrast, to conceive of pre-living processes as fallible) - in the sense that certain other compounds recognized and "approved" by the bacteria may nevertheless fail to support survival. E. coli is able to swim upstream in a sugar gradient due to its ability to recognize a range of carbohydrates (objects) from the partial shape of the perimeter of the molecules (properties) and, for the same reason, they will be deceived by artificial sweeteners with the same partial shape property, just like human beings will be so deceived. Molecular recognition may fail, leading the organism to accept irrelevant or even poisonous substances, a failure which is objectively measured through its consequences for survival.