** Biosemiotics 3 - Copenhagen 10-14 July 2003 - **

"Evolution of meaningful information generation through the evolution of life"

Christophe Menant - Bordeaux - France - (crmenant[at]free.fr)

 

1) Information and Meaning. Meaning Generator System (Biosemiotics 2)

• Meaningful Information generated by a system submitted to a constraint.

Fig 1. Generation of Meaningful Information

See http://crmenant.free.fr/Tartu/Index.htm and http://crmenant.free.fr/ResUK/index.HTM

MGS based on meaning generation in elementary life (Constraint: Stay Alive).

• Animal level: "Stay Alive" including group life constraints.
• Human level: new constraints, some not explainable.

2) MGS evolution: Basic Life, Pre-Human Primate, Human

• Evolutionary approach by considering case of pre-human primate.

Fig 2. Evolution of MGS and evolution of constraints

3) Anxiety Limitation as new constraint in Pre-Human

• Self-Representation of Subject (Self-Awareness, Mirror Neurons).
• Possibility for superposition of Self-Representation to Representation of Conspecifics:
  => Possibility for identification of Subject to Conspecifics.
• Representation of Conspecifics with exposed "Stay Alive" Constraint (endangered):
  => Self-Representation of Subject with exposed "Stay Alive" Constraint => Anxiety.
• Basic Life stress amplified/transformed by self representation comes in addition.
• Anxiety Limtation as new constraint .

Fig 3. Anxiety limitation as new constraint for pre-Human primate

4) Conclusion and continuation

• We have shown that group life with Self-Representation and Conspecific Representation can
  naturaly introduce anxiety for a subject.
• Anxiety Limitation is a new constraint for the MGS at level of pre-Human Primate.
• MGS approach (with "Stay Alive" and "Limit Anxiety" as constraints) to be used for
  better understanding of:
  • Imitation and empathy within primates/Humans.
  • Phylogenesis of emotions
  • Meaningful information for Human
  • Phylogenesis of meaning

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