Semiotics 4.0 as the universal language?

Stephen Wolfram in search for universal language in light of Artificial Intelligence.

Information & Communication. Machines & Humans. Is it truly that distinct?

In an upcoming book we’ll argue it is not. We believe Semiotics 4.0 bridges this gap. With the introduction of Semiotics 4.0, there might be a new ‘universal language’ that ties all other languages (of all distinct knowledge domains) together. Semiotics 4.0 is conceived as a language that allows to understand matter, mind and machine.

Semiotics 4.0 aims to integrate traditional semiotics (as a communication science, rooted in information theory) with so-called computer semiotics, computational semiotics.

Through this new framework called “Semiotics 4.0”, we’ll explain how one gets from a digital signal to a human-like sign. This analysis raises immediate interesting questions such as:

• “is the brain a computer?”
• “is the man a machine?”
• “when and how shall machines be human?”
• “can we make true artificial intelligence happen via semiotic models?”

Furthermore, what are the implications for concepts such as “intelligence”, “consciousness”, “the self”, “the mind”? And can we get rid of (human-computer) interfaces in this manner? Will it speed up a cyborg world? How far from paranormal sign-reading (or even the puzzling concept ‘singularity’) is all this?

The above questions get an answer in the book.

Semiotics 4.0: the universal language? A book. 

I have to say, writing a book is always something I believed I would do some day. I believe the time is now. After all, this “Semiotics 4.0”-thingy has been evolving in my head over the last year. Mind, the word evolve. It was something that gradually grasped me. And it intrigued me. Today I believe the only way forward is to write all of that stuff down so that I can share it with other people.

As with every good research project, one starts by looking at current knowledge in a specific domain. Since Semiotics is by its very nature rather multi-domain, we have to investigate multiple domains. After all, we’re looking for a language that helps to explain matter, machines and (human) minds.

To get started, I created a book with related and relevant papers on the subject to read at the beach during my summer holidays. Unfortunately, during that stay, I didn’t take the time to look at my “personalized holiday literature book”. But the topics however kept popping up in my mind from time and time again. I started reading those papers recently and it encouraged me in creating Semiotics 4.0 .

Stay tuned, if you believe the below papers are interesting! Analysing them might end up in new post.

Initial list to kick-off Literature Review Semiotics.

Note: this is not my entire reading list. It seemed to me those papers were of that importance that I needed to print them. Mostly I read things online. But for more difficult pieces, paper is required (also because it allows me to mark up, annotate, etc.).
For those interested in the literature I’ve gathered and reviewing in this domain, or for anyone finding this interesting enough to collaborate, just hit me.