Life and reference

The paper recommends a broadening of Howard Pattee's seminal distinction be tween a dynamic and a linguistic mode of living systems. It is observed tha t even the dynamic mode is always a semiotic mode although indexical and an alogically coded rather than symbolic and digitally coded. The analogically coded messages corresponds to a kind of tacit knowledge hidden in macromol ecular structure and shape (e.g. molecular complementarity) and in organism ic architecture and communication, i.e. in the semiotic interactions of the body. It is claimed that the origin of referential processes is tied to th e Row of historical singularities. The function of analog and digital codes in evolutionary systems is discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Lt d. All rights reserved.