Anthropology and Infoautopoiesis

Authors

  • Jaime F. Cárdenas-Garcí­a University of Maryland - Baltimore County

Keywords:

Information, Infoautopoiesis, Gregory Bateson, Anthropology, Culture, Nature

Abstract

A resemanticization of Anthropology, the scientific study of human culture, is needed as, since the mid-twentieth century, we live in the Information Age. An epoch prioritizing the primacy of information, on a par with matter and/or energy. A new anthropological understanding of the impact of information entails sidestepping the influence on society of particular scientific and technological developments, such as those considered in the Anthropology of Cyberculture or Technology. The goal is to discover the fundamental role of information in anthropology, in its origins and development, as well as in its present-day local and global manifestations. Infoautopoiesis is at the centre of resolving the fundamental problem of information of how we become what we become. This reconceptualization of information, making it accessible to our daily experience, allows its naturalization. Requiring, in our unavoidable homeorhetic recursive interactions with our environment, the finding of individuated meaning in all that surrounds us and of which we are a part. Necessitating all organisms-in-their-environment to labour to satisfy their physiological and relational needs. Elucidating how their interactions with their environment, from an anthropological perspective, are constitutive of information self-creation, information exchange, information relations and life.

Author Biography

Jaime F. Cárdenas-Garcí­a, University of Maryland - Baltimore County

Jaime F. Cárdenas-Garcí­a, after retirement, is a Visiting Research Scientist at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County. Texas Tech University was his academic home for many years after graduating from the University of Maryland in College Park. Research interests include the links between Information and Biosemiotics.

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Published

26-07-2024

How to Cite

Cárdenas-Garcí­a, J. F. (2024). Anthropology and Infoautopoiesis. Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, 20(1), 1–35. Retrieved from https://cosmosandhistory.org/index.php/journal/article/view/1118