1) Introduction
The Core Components
The Main Equation
Agents that Evolve and Learn
Signers, Interpreters, and Signals
Overview of Chapters
Relevant Literature
Qualifications and Caveats
2) Symptoms and Sickness
Grounding the Scenario
Finding the Posteriors
The Value of the Interpretants
Calculating the Critical Price
The Value of a Sign
The Information in a Sign
The Complexity of a Universe
Economic Semiotics
3) Predators and Prey
The Grounds of Predation
From the Perspective of the Prey
Predation as Conversation
Minimally Coupled Agents
The Organization of Predation
Two-Dimensional Dynamics
Landscape as Ally and Antagonist
4) Agents that Evolve
Evolution and the Difference Equation
The Relative Fitness of Biosemiotic Agents
Dynamic Organism, Fixed Environment
Dynamic Organism, Dynamic Environment
Semiosis and Symbiosis
Sexual Selection
Meaning in Biosemiotic Systems
5) Agents that Learn
The Basic System
From Individual to Ensemble
Establishing a Convention
Motivating Conventions
Parasites
From Possibility to Necessity
Valuable Organization
6) Possible World Semiotics
Introduction to Possible Worlds
Possible World Semantics
Probabilities of Possible Worlds
Bayesian Networks and Expected Value
Conversational Backgrounds
Worlds, Times, Scales
Cutting the University Down to Size
7) Meta-Semiotic Processes
Variations on the Main Equation
Fluid Grounds
Self-Updating Semiotic Agents
A Simple Example of Self-Updating
Modeling Another Agent's Model
Culture as Shared Interpretive Ground
Enemies, Parasites, Infrastructure
8) Conclusion
Good and Bad Grounds
Performativity
Peirce Revisited
Entropy and Free Energy
Machine Learning
Critical Theory