The communication of meaning in social systems

Abstract

The sociological domain is different from the psychological one insofar as meaning can be communicated at the supra-individual level. The computation of anticipatory systems enables us to distinguish between these domains in terms of weakly and strongly anticipatory systems with a structural coupling between them. Anticipatory systems have been defined as systems which entertain models of themselves. The model provides meaning to the modelled system from the perspective of hindsight, that is, by advancing along the time axis towards possible future states. Strongly anticipatory systems construct their own future states. The dynamics of weak and strong anticipations can be simulated as incursion and hyper-incursion, respectively. Hyper-incursion generates 'horizons of meaning' among which choices have to be made by incursive agency. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.