How cyborgs transcend Maturana’s concept of languaging: A (bio)engineering perspective on information processing and embodied cognition
Keywords:
Languaging, Shannon-information, Biosemiotics, Evoneering, Radical linguistics
Abstract
With the purpose of establishing life-mind-language continuity, the paper thematizes an important phenomenon missing from Maturana’s (1988) theory of languaging: the generative basis of second order consensual coordination. While Maturana suggests that coordination involving biological information is qualitatively different from coordination involving concepts, we make the case that the two should be seen as continuous. We critically expand on Clark’s (2003) point that language and technical artefacts extend human cognitive capacities while challenging Clark’s Shannon-based view on information. Rather than focusing on language as a representational medium we turn to how languaging is enabled by multiple, qualitatively different organizational levels in organism-environment systems. On our view, language is irreducible to the exchange of predetermined, conceptual meanings. Rather, we hold, human linguistic abilities are based in embodied hierarchies of molecular coding in the sense that some of these hierarchies rise to neuronal (electromagnetic) and cognitive patterns that enable meaning-making activities (including languaging) connected with a particular praxis. Our account is based on the case of synthetic evolution and engineering (Evoneering) of humans with intelligent (bio)nanomaterials and (bio)chips implanted into their body for medical purposes.
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Barbieri, Marcello (2006), «Life and semiosis: The real nature of information and meaning», in
Semiotica, vol. 158, pp. 233-254.
Barbieri, Marcello (2008), «The Code Model of Semiosis: The First Steps Toward a Scientific Biosemiotics», in The American Journal of Semiotics, vol. 24, 1–3, pp. 23-37.
Barbieri, Marcello (2015), Code Biology. A New Science of Life, Springer, London.
Barfield, Woodrow, Williams, Alexander (2017), «Cyborgs and Enhancement Technology», in Philosophies, vol. 2, n. 1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/philo sophies2010004
Bruni, Luis E. (2007), Cellular Semiotics and Signal Transduction, in Barbieri, Marcello, ed. by, Introduction to Biosemiotics. The New Biological Synthesis, Springer, London.
Buzsáki, György (2006), Rhythms of the Brain, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Buzsáki, György (2019), The Brain from Inside Out, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Clark, Andy (2003), Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Cowley, Stephen J., Markos, Anton (2019), «Evolution, lineages and human language», in Language Sciences, vol. 71, pp. 8-18.
Duan, Xiaojie, et al. (2013), «Nanoelectronics-biology frontier: From nanoscopic probes for action potential recording in live cells to three-dimensional cyborg tissues», in Nano Today, vol. 8, n. 4, pp. 351-373.
Edelman, Bradley J., et al. (2019). «Noninvasive neuroimaging enhances continuous neural tracking for robotic device control», in Science Robotics, vol. 4, issue 31, DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aaw6844.
Even-Chen, Nir, et al. (2020), «Power-saving design opportunities for wireless intracortical brain–computer interfaces», in Nature Biomedical Engineering, vol. 4, pp. 984-996.
Feiner, Ron, Dvir, Tal (2020), «Engineering Smart Hybrid Tissues with Built-In Electronics», in iScience, vol. 23, n. 2, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article /pii/S258900422030016X.
Gahrn-Andersen, Rasmus (in press), «Concrete Concepts in Basic Perception», in Philosophia.
Gahrn-Andersen, Rasmus (2019a), «But language too is material!», in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, vol. 18, n. 1, pp. 169-183.
Gahrn-Andersen, Rasmus (2019b), «Interactivity and Languaging: How humans use existential meaning», in Chinese Semiotic Studies, vol. 15, n. 4, pp. 653-674.
Gray, Mark, et al. (2018), «Implantable biosensors and their contribution to the future of precision medicine», in The Veterinary Journal, vol. 239, pp. 21-29.
Guattari, Félix (1992), Chaosmosis an ethico-aesthetic paradigm, Indiana University Press, Bloomington-Indianapolis.
Hong, Guosong, et al. (2018), «Mesh electronics: a new paradigm for tissue-like brain probes», in Curr Opin Neurobiol, vol. 50, pp. 33-41.
Kravchenko, Alexander V. (2007), «Essential properties of language, or, why language is not a code», in Language Sciences, vol. 29, pp. 650-671.
Kravchenko, Alexander V. (2020), «A critique of barbieri’s code biology», in Constructivist Foundations, vol. 15, nr. 2, pp. 122-134.
Latour, Bruno (1996), «On Interobjectivity», in Mind, Culture, and Activity, vol. 3, n. 4, pp. 228-245.
Lee, Hongmi, Kuhl, Brice A. (2016), «Reconstructing Perceived and Retrieved Faces from Activity Patterns in Lateral Parietal Cortex», in J Neurosci, vol. 36, n. 22, pp. 6069-6082.
Lee, Jae-Hyun, et al. (2016), «Spontaneous Internalization of Cell Penetrating Peptide-Modified Nanowires into Primary Neurons», in Nano Letters, vol. 16, n. 2, pp. 1509-1513.
Li, Guangye, Zhang, Dingguo (2016), «Brain-Computer Interface Controlled Cyborg: Establishing a Functional Information Transfer Pathway from Human Brain to Cockroach Brain», in PLoS One, vol. 11, n. 3, https://journals.plos.org/plosone /article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0150667.
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Maturana, Humberto R. (1988), «Reality: The search for objectivity or the quest for a compelling argument», in The Irish Journal of Psychology, vol. 9, n. 1, pp. 25-82.
Ortiz-Catalan, Max, et al. (2020), «Self-Contained Neuromusculoskeletal Arm Prostheses», in New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 382, n. 18, pp. 1732-1738.
Osumi, Michihiro, et al. (2019), «Characteristics of Phantom Limb Pain Alleviated with Virtual Reality Rehabilitation», in Pain Med, vol. 20, n. 5, pp. 1038-1046.
Palese, Emma (2012), «Robots and cyborgs: to be or to have a body?», in Poiesis & praxis: international journal of ethics of science and technology assessment, vol. 8, n. 4, pp. 191-196.
Patolsky, Fernando, et al. (2006), «Detection, Stimulation, and Inhibition of Neuronal Signals with High-Density Nanowire Transistor Arrays», in Science vol. 313, n. 5790, pp. 1100-1104.
Raimondi, Vincenzo (2019), «The bio-logic of languaging and its epistemological background», in Language Sciences, vol. 71, pp. 19-26, DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2018.03.003
Raimondi, Vincenzo (2014), «Social interaction, languaging and the operational conditions for the emergence of observing», in Frontiers in Psychology, n. 5, https://www. frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00899/full
Ramoğlu, Muhammet (2019), «Cyborg-Computer Interaction: Designing New Senses», in The Design Journal, vol. 22(sup1), pp. 1215-1225.
Rizzuti, Mafalda, et al. (2015), «Therapeutic applications of the cell-penetrating HIV-1 Tat peptide», in Drug Discov Today, vol. 20, n. 1, pp. 76-85.
Ruckh, Timothy T., Clark, Heather A. (2014), «Implantable nanosensors: toward continuous physiologic monitoring», in Analytical chemistry, vol. 86, n. 3, pp. 1314-1323.
Shannon, Claude A. (2001), «Mathematical Theory of Communication», in Mobile Computing and Communications Review, vol. 5, n. 1, pp. 3-55.
Shen, Guohan, et al. (2019a), «End-to-End Deep Image Reconstruction From Human Brain Activity», in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, vol. 13, n. 21, DOI: 10.3389 /fncom.2019.00021
Shen, Guohua, et al. (2019b), «Deep image reconstruction from human brain activity», in PLOS Computational Biology, vol. 15, n. 1, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006633
Siegmund, Janet, et al. (2020), «Studying programming in the neuroage», in Communications of the ACM vol. 63, n. 6, pp. 30-34.
Srivastava, Sarvesh K., Yadav, Vikramaditya G. (2018), «Bionic Manufacturing: Towards Cyborg Cells and Sentient Microbots», in Trends Biotechnol, vol. 36, n. 5, pp. 483-487.
Villa, Alessandro (2008), «Neural Coding in the Neuroheuristic Perspective. The Codes of Life - The Rules of Macroevolution», in Biosemiotics, vol. 1, pp. 357-377.
Yetisen, Ali K. (2018), «Biohacking», in Trends Biotechnol, vol. 36, n. 8, pp. 744-747.
Zahid, Maliha, Robbins, Paul D. (2015), «Cell-type specific penetrating peptides: therapeutic promises and challenges», in Molecules, vol. 20, n. 7, pp. 13055-13070.
Published
2022-01-23
How to Cite
Gahrn-Andersen, R. and Prinz, R. (2022) “How cyborgs transcend Maturana’s concept of languaging: A (bio)engineering perspective on information processing and embodied cognition”, Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio, 15(2). doi: 10.4396/2021204.
Section
Articles
Copyright (c) 2021 Rasmus Gahrn-Andersen, Robert Prinz
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Works published in RIFL are released under Creative Commons Licence:Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
