On the Semiotic Cognition of Xenobots and Anthrobots

Bioelectrically and computationally reengineered biological creatures such as Xenobots and Anthrobots are reprogrammed cellular biobots capable of emergent self-repair and von Neumann-style kinematic reproduction capabilities (Levin 2023; Kriegman et al., 2021). They exhibit novel morphologies and problem-solving behaviours despite appearing from off evolutionary streams. Such novel behaviours life exemplify Peirce’s habit-taking tendencies, including learning, communication, and spontaneous reproductive means. Whereas current explanations of such emergent competencies use mechanistic explanations in the theories of bioelectricity, mapping of electrical patterns to specific phenotypic functions (see, e.g., Levin 2023), I propose that explaining them synechistically that sees life, cognition and matter to be continuous phenomena is a better, non-nominalistic explanation: it explains how intelligent competences are imprinted kinematically rather than genetically, without congenital inheritance or mutation. What directs the adaptation of, e.g. xenobots to novel environments can happens not through selective mechanisms but by continuously interacting habits of behavior. Meaningful changes in the offspring are attributable to the habits that establish new features and bring novel organisms into harmony with the general morphologies of the environment. Thus, this historical approach gains conceptual and explanatory currency, given how the extended notion of habits spans explanations that are simultaneously physical, computational, and biological.

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