Biological Dimensions of Media Ecology and Its Relationship to Biosemiotics

By Robert K. Logan
Source: MEDIA , pp 188-199
Publication Date: April 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/9781789383263_015
Language: English

This chapter explores biological dimensions of media ecology. I therefore intend to explore the connection between media ecology and biology by suggesting that media ecology entails the interaction of media not only with each other but also with our biological nature given that the very first media of human society arose from our biological capacity for language and culture.

An ecological system may be considered a medium in which its components interact with or ‘communicate’ with each other. Traditional ecosystems consider the interactions of biological organisms interacting with each other and their physical environment. A media ecological system, on the other hand, is defined as consisting of human beings, their technological artefacts and the communications media through which they interact and communicate with each other and their physical environment and hence includes their languages and cultures. Biology and culture can no longer be studied separately because human evolution is a combination of biological and cultural evolution and as is recognized by biologists.

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References

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References

Christiansen, Morten (1994), ‘Infinite languages finite minds: Connectionism, learning and linguistic structure’, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Edinburgh: Centre for Cognitive Studies, University of Edinburgh.
Christiansen, Morten H., Dale, Rick A. C., Ellefson, Michelle R. and Conway, Christopher M. (2002), ‘The role of sequential learning in language evolution: Computational and experimental studies’, in A. Cangelosi and D. Parisi (eds), Simulating the Evolution of Language, London: Springer-Verlag, pp. 165–87.
[Google Scholar]
Dawkins, Richard ([1976] 1989), The Selfish Gene, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Deacon, Terrence (1997), The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of the Brain and Language, New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
Geertz, Clifford (1973), The Interpretation of Culture, New York: Basic Books.
Kauffman, Stuart (2000), Investigations, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kauffman, Stuart, Logan, Robert K., Este, Robert, Goebel, Randy, Hobill, David and Shmulevich, Ilya (2007), ‘Propagating organization: An enquiry’, Biology and Philosophy, 23:1, pp. 27–45.
[Google Scholar]
Kroker, Arthur (1994), ‘Code of privilege’, interviewed by Sharon Grace, Mondo 2000, Spring, pp. 80–87.
Logan, Robert K. (2002), ‘The five ages of communication’, Explorations in Media Ecology, 1:1, pp. 13–20.
[Google Scholar]
——— ([2000] 2004), The Sixth Language: Learning a Living in the Internet Age, Caldwell, NJ: Blackburn Press, Toronto: Stoddart Publishing.
——— (2007), The Extended Mind: The Emergence of Language, the Human Mind and Culture, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
McLuhan, Marshall (1964), Understanding Media: Extensions of Man, New York: McGraw Hill.
——— (1970), ‘Education in the electronic age’, Interchange, 1:4, pp. 1–12.
[Google Scholar]
——— (1995), ‘A McLuhan sourcebook assembled by William Kuhns’, in E. McLuhan and F. Zingrone (eds), Essential McLuhan, Concord, ON: Anansi, pp. 272–76.
[Google Scholar]
Shannon, Claude (1948), ‘A mathematical theory of communication’, Bell System Technical Journal, 27, pp. 379–423.
[Google Scholar]

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