The concepts of INDICATOR and SIGNAL belong to SEMIOTICS. My presentation of SEMIOTICS builds on the seminal work of American Charles Saunders Peirce, our greatest 19th century mathematician and our greatest (but misunderstood) philosopher.
- SEMIOTICS IS THE STUDY OF SIGNS.
- I subsume their basics under the acronym "ISIS: INDICATOR, SIGNAL, ICON, SYMBOL".
- An INDICATOR is really an ORDERED PAIR OF SIGNS (written with "corner parentheses"): <highly-observable-low-meaningful-sign, lowly-observable-highly-meaningful-sign>. (Examples: <lightning, distant thunderstorm>; <pink-litmus-paper-in-test-tube, acidity-of-liquid>.)
- A SIGNAL IS AN INDICATOR UNDER PHYSICAL & LINGUISTIC CONTROL. (Example: The lightning is physically controlled as electric current interrupted by a telegraph key according to the linguistic control of the Morse Code.)
- AN ICON IS A SIGN THAT RESEMBLES ITS REFERENCE. (Example: slash mark through lighted cigarette, or truck on highway.)
- A SYMBOL IS A SIGN ARBITRARILY ASSIGNED A MEANING.
I use the CONCEPTS of INDICATOR and SIGNAL to formulate a STRATEGY. THE STRATEGY OF SCIENCE IS TO SEARCH FOR INDICATORS AND TRY TO TRANSFORM THEM INTO SIGNALS. The following TABLE illustrates this.INDICATOR: <1st Component: Hily ObservableE Event of Low Informational Content; 2nd Component: Low Observational Event with Hi Informational Content>
SIGNAL: INDICATOR UNDER PHYSICAL AND LINGUISTIC CONTROL
INDICATOR-SIGNAL TABLE IND. 1st COMP. IND. 2nd COMP. SIGNAL PHYS. CONTROL SIGNAL LING. CONTROL COMMENT Lightning Thunderstorm Telegraph Key Morse Code Telegraphy first important application of electricity Symptom Disease Diagnostic tests Instructions Medievalists used "semiosis" for "symptom" Fever Infection Diagnostic tests Instructions Fever formerly miscalled "disease" Red litmus paper Acidic liquid Chemical tests Instructions --
CHALLENGE: EXPAND THIS TABLE and EXTEND (OR CORRECT) MY PARADIGM OF SCIENCE AS INDICATORS-INTO-SIGNALS.