What is it for a sound or gesture to have a meaning, and how does it come to have one? In this paper, a range of simulations are used to extend the tradition of theories of meaning as use. The authors work throughout with large spatialized arrays of sessile individuals in an environment of wandering food sources and predators. Individuals gain points by feeding and lose points when they are hit...

Meaning making is central to the interactions that take place in CSCL settings. The collaborative construction of shared meaning is a complex process that has not previously been analyzed in detail despite the fact that it is often acknowledged as being the distinguishing element in CSCL. Here, a three-minute excerpt from a discussion among three students is considered in some detail. The stude...

This report describes synthetic ethology, a scientific methodology in which we construct synthetic worlds in which synthetic agents evolve and become coupled to their environment. First we review the motivations for synthetic ethology as an experimental methodology and explain how it can be used to investigate intentionality and meaning, and the mechanisms from which they emerge, with an especi...