Symbols get their meaning when we look at them.
Last modified on April 30, 2022
Otherwise, they’re just arbitrary and utterly meaningless squiggles. It is we humans who imbue those squiggles with the power to represent something.
Links to “Symbols get their meaning when we look at them.”
The Cybernetic Manifesto
The way they describe knowledge systems is very similar to the way certain philosophers approach computational systems – they only have meaning relative to an observer. Symbols get their meaning when we look at them.
When a number of systems become integrated so that a new level of control emerges, we say that a metasystem has formed. We refer to this process as a metasystem transition.
A metasystem transition is, by definition, a creative act. It cannot be solely directed by the internal structure or logic of a system, but must always comes from outside causes, from “above”.
Feels related to the “I”-mode and “M”-mode discussion in M-mode vs. I-mode.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid 🪢
TODO: write about the passage where Hofstadter challenges the idea that Symbols get their meaning when we look at them. – perhaps if we sent symbols to an alien species and they were able to decipher it, then some symbols could have universal meaning??