Linguistics, Semiotics, and Philosophy - Molecular Theory of the Living Cell - page 167

Table 6.5 A physical (or material) comparison between human and cell languages
Human language ( Humanese ) Cell language ( Cellese )

1. Scale Macroscopic Microscopic

2. Signifier Words Molecules

3. Signified Concepts Gene-directed molecular processes

4. Rules wrought by Social conventions Biological evolution

Conformons a & IDSs b (i.e.,
mechanical and concentration
waves)

5. Information

transmission by

Sounds and light (i.e., sound
and electromagnetic waves)

6. Maximum
Information
Principle made
possible by

Arbitrariness of signs with
respect to their objects
or referents

Arbitrariness of molecular signs
with respect to their target
functions

a Conformational strains of biopolymers localized in sequence-specific sites (Chap. 8 )
b Intracellular dissipative structures such as gradients of ions, metabolites, proteins, etc. inside the
cell (Chap. 9 )

Fig. 6.2 A diagrammatic
representation of the Peircean
sign triad

R

S =

O I

transmitted by a sign, the idea being referred to as the Maximum Information
Principle (Ji 1997a, pp. 36-37). Since cell language is isomorphic with human
language, both belonging to the symmetry group, SG(5) (see Sect. 6.1.2 ), the
arbitrariness of signs should apply to molecular signs in cell language, leading to
the following inference:
Just as the link between signs and their objects is arbitrary in human language, so the
relation between molecular signs and their objects (or referents) are arbitrary, likely
because such arbitrariness is necessary to maximize the amount of the information trans-
mitted through or carried by molecular signs. (6.17)
For convenience, we will refer to Statement 6.17 as the principle of the arbitrariness
of molecular signs (PAMS). Some experimental data supporting PAMS will be
discussed in Sect. 12.10 , where yeast RNAs are found to be divided into two distinct
groups called the cis- and trans-regulatory groups , based on their genotypes, the
former being less arbitrary (and thus carrying less genetic information) than the latter
by a factor of about 3.
The principle of arbitrariness of molecular signs may be viewed as an aspect of
the more general principle of rule-governed creativity (Ji 1997a). Both these
principles appear to apply to multiple levels of biological organizations (as indicated
in Table 6.6 ), from protein folding (Row 1a) to other processes on the molecular
(Row 1b, 1c, and 1d) and cellular (Rows 2 and 3) levels.