ABSTRACT
In biology, Emile Zuckerkandl and Linus Pauling have introduced the concept of ‘semantophoretic’ or ‘semantic’ molecules by showing that certain proteins and nucleic acids allow us to reconstruct genealogical trees and can be regarded as molecular chronometers of the history of life. In communication theory and computer science, Lila Gatlin and others have added the concept of thermodynamic meaning to that of information, a move that implies an entirely new approach to thermodynamic description of Nature. In this way, biologists and computer scientists alike have gone beyond the stage of information only, and are beginning to speak of ‘information-plus-meaning’, i.e. of ‘semantic’ processes. Karl Popper pointed out that the previous title ‘the Ribotype Theory of Evolution’ was not entirely satisfactory even if the concept of ribotype is at the very centre of the new theory.
