The Wobbly Semiosphere

Human minds vibrate in the rhythms of the self-created meaningfulness of the flow of living. As we live we find our experiences somehow meaningful. Yet it is impossible to describe the whole picture of our living in the special cloud of meanings—exemplified by a myriad of signs we have created. How can semiotics as science handle such overwhelmingness of the meanings in and around us? General concepts are needed for describing the fullness of that human condition. At the same time, the phenomena of meaning construction are always local. A solution to that conceptual issue—how are general principles organizing the uniqueness of local events—could only come as an analogy with other similar situations. It is rare in history of sciences to have the precise birth date of an idea available. In the case of the notion of the semiosphere, we have that luxury. The concept of semiosphere is a field-like term that integrates the wholeness of our social being. The leader of the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics—Juri Lotman—introduced the notion in 1982. In this chapter we look at spheric models of the semiosphere and its potential development.