Semiosphere is the sphere of semiosis in which the sign processes operate in the set of all interconnected Umwelts. The concept was developed by Juri Lotman and is now considered a part of biosemiotics. Semiosis is a term introduced by Charles Peirce. ... In semiotics, a sign is generally defined as, ...something that stands for something else, to someone in some capacity. ... Umwelt (from the German umwelt, environment) according to Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok is the biological foundations that lie at the very epicenter of the study of both communication and signification in the human [and non-human] animal. ... Yuri Lotman Yuri Lotman (also Juri, Jüri, Jurij) (28 February 1922 - 1993) was an important semiotician, culturologist, and philologist in Russian literature. ... Biosemiotics (bios=life & semion=sign) is a growing field that studies the production, action and interpretation of signs in the physical and biologic realm, in an attempt to integrate the findings of scientific biology and semiotics to form a new view of life and meaning as immanent features of the...

Discussion

Juri Lotman, a semiotician at Tartu University, Estonia, was inspired by Vernadsky's terms biosphere and noosphere to propose that a semiosphere comes into being when any two Umwelts are communicating. Later, Jesper Hoffmeyer suggested a variation that the community of organisms occupying the semiosphere will inhabit a "semiotic niche". This implies that the semiosphere may be partially independent of the Umwelts. Kull argues that this suggestion is not consistent with the nature of semiosis which can only be a product of the behaviour of the organisms in the Umwelts. It is the organisms that create the signs which become the constituent parts of the semiosphere. This is not an adaptation to the existing environment, but the continuous creation of a new environment. Kull believes that it is only possible to accept Hoffmeyer's view as an analogy to the concept of an ecological niche as it is traditionally used in biology, so that the community develops according to the semiotic understanding of the processes which are responsible for the building of Umwelt. Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (Владимир Иванович Вернадский) (March 12, 1863, N.S. [ February 28, O.S. ] – January 6, 1945) was a Russian mineralogist and geochemist who first popularized the concept of the noosphere and deepened the idea biosphere to the meaning largely recognized by todays scientific community. ... The biosphere is that part of a planets outer shell—including air, land, surface rocks and water—within which life occurs, and which biotic processes in turn alter or transform. ... The noosphere can be seen as the sphere of human thought being derived from the Greek νους (nous) meaning mind in the style of atmosphere and biosphere. Just as the biosphere is composed of all the organisms on Earth and their interactions, the noosphere is composed of all the interacting minds... A community is an amalgamation of living things that share an environment. ... Jump to: navigation, search In biology and ecology, an organism (in Greek organon = instrument) is an assembly of organs that influence each other in such a way that they function as a more or less stable whole and have properties of life. ... Generally, a niche is a special place within the scheme of things. ... Main articles: Life All organisms (viruses not included) consist of cells, which in turn, are based on a common carbon-based biochemistry. ...

References

• Hoffmeyer, Jesper. Signs of Meaning in the Universe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (1996)
• Kull, Kalevi. "On Semiosis, Umwelt, and Semiosphere". Semiotica vol. 120(3/4), pp. 299-310. (1998)
• Lotman, Yuri M. "O semiosfere". Sign Systems Studies (Trudy po znakovym sistemam) vol. 17, pp. 5-23. (1984)