From matter to form: the evolution of the genetic code as semio-poiesis

Abstract

Abstract We address issues of description of the origin and evolution of the genetic code from a semiotics standpoint. Developing the concept of codepoiesis introduced by Barbieri, a new idea of semio-poiesis is proposed. Semio-poiesis, a recursive auto-referential processing of semiotic system, becomes a form of organization of the bio-world when and while notions of meaning and aiming are introduced into it. The description of the genetic code as a semiotic system (grammar and vocabulary) allows us to apply the method of internal reconstruction to it: on the basis of heterogeneity and irregularity of the current state, to explicate possible previous states and various ways of forming mechanisms of coding and textualization. The revealed patterns are consistent with hypotheses about the origin and evolution of the genetic code.