Regulatory Logic, Algorithmic Information and General Semantics

Abstract

As H. Atlan and A. Carsetti remark in a natural self organizing system (a biological one, characterized by the existence of cognitive activities) the goal has not been set from the outside. What is self-organizing is the function itself with its meaning. The origin of meaning in the organization of the system is an emergent property. In this sense the origin of meaning is closely connected to precise linguistic and logical operations and to well defined procedures of observation and self-observation. These operations and procedures induce, normally, continuous processes of inner reorganization at the level of the system. The behaviour of the net, in other words, possesses a meaning not only to the extent that it will result autonomous and to the extent that inside it we can inspect a continuous revelation of hidden properties, but also to the extent that it will result capable of observation and self-observation as well as intentionally linked to a continuous production of possible new interpretation acts and reorganization schemes. The state space relative to these observational, self-observational and intentional functional activities cannot be confined, in this sense, on logical grounds, only within the boundaries of a nested articulation of propositional Boolean frames. On the contrary, we will be obliged, in order to give an explanation, within a general theory of cellular nets, for such complex phenomena, to resort to particular informational tools that reveal themselves as essentially linked to the articulation of predicative and higher-order level languages, to the outlining of a multidimensional information theory and to the definition of an adequate intensional and second-order semantics.