Overview
- First multi-authored book on organic codes
- Genetic code was only first of a long series of organic codes
- Finally the rules of macroevolution looked for by generations of biologists
- Organic codes are the key to understanding the major transitions of life history
- Evolution took place by natural selection, conventions
- Mental, cultural codes came after a three-billion-year history of organic codes
Part of the book series: Biosemiotics (BSEM, volume 1)
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Table of contents (18 chapters)
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Front Matter
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The Genetic Code
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Protein, Lipid, and Sugar Codes
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Neural, Mental, and Cultural Codes
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
Building on a range of disciplines – from biology and anthropology to philosophy and linguistics – this book draws on the expertise of leading names in the study of organic, mental and cultural codes brought together by the emerging discipline of biosemiotics.
The book’s 18 chapters present a range of experimental evidence which suggests that the genetic code was only the first in a long series of organic codes, and that it has been the appearance of new codes – organic, mental and cultural – that paved the way for the major transitions in the history of life.
While the existence of many organic codes has been proposed since the 1980s, this volume represents the first multi-authored attempt to deal with the range of codes relevant to life, and to reveal the ubiquitous role of coding mechanisms in both organic and mental evolution. This creates the conditions for a synthesis of biology and linguistics that finally overcomes the old divide between nature and culture.
The book will appeal to all those interested in the origins and evolution of life, including biologists (from molecular and cellular biologists to evolutionary and developmental biologists), ecologists, anthropologists, psychologists, philosophers of science, linguists, and researchers interested in the history of science, the origins of life, artificial life and intelligence, and information theory and communication technology.
Reviews
From the reviews:
"Biosemiotics purports to be a new synthesis of existing theories and compilations of theories addressing evolutionary bases. Barbieri … has asked a group of researchers to present their ideas on a wide-ranging set of notions about change and stability. … This work offers an impressive array of facts and speculations, extremely stimulating in origin and execution. … the articles are generally well done with good bibliographies, and they will be useful to many researchers. … Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and researchers/faculty." (F. W. Yow, CHOICE, Vol. 45 (10), June, 2008)
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Marcello Barbieri is Professor of Embryology at the University of Ferrara, Italy, president of the Italian Association for Theoretical Biology, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biosemiotics, and Co-Editor of the Springer book series in Biosemiotics.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Codes of Life
Book Subtitle: The Rules of Macroevolution
Editors: Marcello Barbieri, Jesper Hoffmeyer
Series Title: Biosemiotics
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6340-4
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-6339-8Published: 07 November 2007
Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-7611-3Published: 30 November 2010
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4020-6340-4Published: 26 October 2007
Series ISSN: 1875-4651
Series E-ISSN: 1875-466X
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XX, 440
Number of Illustrations: 8 illustrations in colour
Topics: Evolutionary Biology, Philosophy of Biology, Biochemistry, general, Coding and Information Theory, Semantics