Eluding the Demon – how extreme physical information applies to semeiosis and communication

Abstract

C.S. Peirce states that a sign represents only some aspect of an object, which means that no representation can be perfect. The form – or information – grounding the sign's ability to represent its object is always deficient in some measure. If we take the difference between the form of the object and the form represented in the sign to be a physical one, the flow of semiosis can be taken as a flow of information, and consequently, a knowledge game by which the interpretant tries to improve the information grounding the sign, amplifying its ability to represent. The other player in the game, the dynamical object, takes the role of a demon, always changing its form to escape a complete symbolic interpretation. The Extreme Physical Information (EPI) theory, formulated by the American physicist Roy Frieden in 1995 and 2000, shows how the pay off of this game is always on the side of the interpretant. This explains why semiosis is teleological and naturally tends towards an increase of information and knowledge in a community of interpretants pragmatically engaged in the inquiry by means of communication. It also explains why intelligence can evolve among living creatures – their observations tend to be accurate, and accuracy is a prerequisite for effective behavior. It results that their fitnesses go up, so that evolution favors their existence.