Semiotic Machines
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What is a semiotic machine? A
robot, a computer running programs endowed with artificial intelligence, any
computer, a simple calculating machine, or even an ordinary mechanical
typewriter? The question will be examined in the light of Charles Sanders Peirce’s concept of semiosis,
which requires reference to processes such as reasoning, translation,
interpretation, control, self-control, autopoiesis, self-reference,
creativity, as well as to the distinction between genuine semiosis
and quasi-semiosis. In contrast to John Searle, who
argues that computers are mindless Chinese boxes and hence necessarily nonsemiotic machines, Peirce,
long before the advent of computers, showed on the one hand that machines can
certainly participate in processes of quasi-semiosis,
but on the other hand that human minds, to a certain degree, can also operate
like mere machines. However, although genuine semiosis
is not restricted to operations of the human mind since it occurs widely in
other spheres of life or even prebiological
evolution, it is in fact questionable whether machines produced by humans, can
already be described as capable of triggering genuinely semiotic processes.
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