COMMUNICATOR
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 519 ▶ |
| Object type | Human sciences |
Anyone who transmits information to other people.
A. LOTKA, taking up an idea also emitted by A. KORZYBSKI (1933, 1950), writes: “Man is the only animal who in any considerable measure bequeaths to his descendants the accumulated wisdom of past generations. Evolution in this case proceeds not merely by the slow process of selection, but is immensely hastened by the cumulative and continuous growth of a body of knowledge exempt from the law of mortality which sets a term on the life of the individual” (1956, p.379)
To a greater or lesser degree, we are all communicators and it is mainly this function which shapes society.
From the viewpoint of evolution, we could speak of a kind of collective lamarckian heredity of acquired mental characters.
The existence of communicators in non-human systems has not be researched to any great extent, save in ethology. However the presence, at the genetic level, for example, of elements, specific bearers of the communication function seems to be essential to explain organizational closure and autopoiesis in living systems. The same question is also latent within the ecological hypothesis of the “planet system” (“Gaia”)