Selected Self-Organization and the Semiotics of Evolutionary S

In this paper I sketch a rough taxonomy of self-organization which may be of relevance in the study of cognitive and biological systems. I frame the problem both in terms of the language of secondorder cybernetics as well as the language of current theories of self-organization and complexity. The goal of establishing such a taxonomy is to allow for a classification of different tools used both in Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life, so that different aspects of cognitive and biological systems may be incorporated in more accurate models of such systems. In particular, I defend, on the one hand, that self-organization alone is not rich enough for our intended simulations, and on the other, that genetic selection in biology and symbolic representation in cognitive science alone leave out the very important (self-organizing) characteristics of particular embodiments of evolving and learning systems.