A neurobiological interpretation of semiotics: meaning, representation, and information

The branch of semiotics called semantics deals with the relation between meanings and representations, widely known as the symbol grounding problem. The other branches of semiotics, syntactics which deals with symbol-symbol relations as in a dictionary, and pragmatics which deals with symbol-action paradigms as in traffic signs, are well done by computers, but semantics has eluded computer simulation. In my view, this is because computer programmers have neglected that aspect of Shannon's definition by which information has no meaning; computers process information, whereas brains create meaning. Brains obtain information about the world through the consequences of their own embodied actions. The information thus obtained is used in constructing meaning and is then discarded. One kind of information in the world consists of representations made by other brains for social communication. Computers use representations for information processing and symbol manipulation. However, brai...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2000
• Where: ISCI
• Authors: Walter J. Freeman
• Keywords: Brains, Computers, Information, ISCI 2000