Initially, this page on Semiotic Structures is the same as the region in the page Multiple Human Worlds. That region and this page will eventually be modified.
Semiotic Structures include all text documents, photographs, videos, art forms, constructed objects, roads and paths, buildings and machines, agricultural fields, scientific data, etc.
Living organisms are not Semiotic Structures, as they were not constructed by humans.
The boundary between structures that are semiotic and not semiotic blurs if examined to closely. However, this does not invalidate this perspective as useful. No perspective has boundaries that don*t blur on close examination.
Living organisms can be altered by human action, and these alterations are Semiotic Structures. For example, a black eye from being hit by another or a surgical scar is a Semiotic Structure, whereas an accidental bruise or cut is not a Semiotic Structure. A photo or written description of the bruise or cut would be a Semiotic Structure. The plants in an agricultural field are not Semiotic Structures, but the arrangement of the plants in the field is a Semiotic Structure.
:By altering the nurturing environment of living systems, humans can intentionally modify their biological structure, and the modification can be viewed as Semiotic Structure. If we could modify a horse fly into a horse, then we may make claim to creating living organisms as Semiotic Structures.
Fluid pressure fields caused by speech or musical instruments are Semiotic Structures. The rattle noise of a machine is not, unless the machine was constructed to make that sound. DNA modified organisms are not Semiotic Structures * but this is a touchy, blurry boundary. Something about intentional DNA modified life is semiotic. I would propose to include a reported pattern of difference.
A structure is semiotic if when perceived by a human the human has experientials (inner conscious experiences) that ascribe "meaning" to the structure.
"Meaning" will be left undefined at this stage * it is a primitive for this phenemonological perspective. Which does not prohibit us from later considering variations, types and styles of "meaning" * within the phenomenological domain.
I will use the term "sData" instead of the longer "Semiotic Structure".
All that we ordinarily consider "data", resulting from observation, is sData.
SCIENCE can be redefined as the human study of data (according to specific methods for data analysis), and not the study of an objective material universe.
Scientific instruments (sData) can generate data that is, itself, not created by humans. This data can be further processed automatically and an analysis with data gathered and processed at other time presented in dynamic graphical formats to be observed by human scientists.
I chose to include such data as sData, although the patterns in the data were not created by the intention of humans.
:This is not that different from human artistic and musical creations that more emerge subconsciously from the person than intentionally constructed by the person.
Larry Victor 07/11/2004
