Cybersemiotics and Human Modelling
Entropy September 19, 2010 Paul Cobley
Cybersemiotics proposes a new philosophy of science that addresses the failure of existing disciplines to account for qualia and motivation, challenges the computational information-processing view of knowing, and examines the role of the observer. This article argues that the constructivist basis of 'languaging' within cybersemiotics presents a potential impediment. It contends that the central issue for cybersemiotics is the process of 'modelling' in biosemiotics, not language itself. The author argues that future biosemiotics research will benefit from a clearer understanding of 'observership' and that the relationship between constructivism and realism must be clarified, with tools available from general semiotics.