#sematics

{Ogron}: Yes! Finally, after centuries, we’re about to capture the last fairy on Earth!

{Duman}: No we’re not.

{Ogron}: …What?

{Duman}: Roxy’s not the last fairy on Earth.

{Ogron}: What are you talking about? Of course she is!

{Duman}: Oh really? *points at the Winx* Then what are they? They’re fairies. And they’re on Earth. So Roxy’s not the last fairy on Earth.

{Stella}: Sweet Solaria, he’s right! …So what is Roxy, then?

{Duman}: A fairy that happens to be from Earth.

{Ogron}: Alright, we’re going to capture a fairy that happens to be from Earth then.

{Duman}: No we’re not.

{Ogron}: Oh, what now?!

{Duman}: She got away while we were talking.

In my quest for burger understanding, as I read through Semiotics for Beginners, I’ll pull out any interesting or thought-provoking quotes, then write down my thoughts.

Chapter 1 Part 3

'Semiosis', a term borrowed from Charles Sanders Peirce, is expanded by Eco to designate the process by which a culture produces signs and/or attributes meaning to signs. Although for Eco meaning production or semiosis is a social activity, he allows that subjective factors are involved in each individual act of semiosis.

This seems to be giving a name to the process in which prototype-first vs definition-first words come about (which I talked about in my last post).

It can help us to realise that information or meaning is not 'contained' in the world or in books, computers or audio-visual media. Meaning is not 'transmitted' to us - we actively create it according to a complex interplay of codes or conventions of which we are normally unaware.

19/45 productivity challenge.

What if every question prompted a reversal question? Why doesn’t 100% of eligible voters exercise their franchise? Could become Why do 56% of eligible voters vote? Or How can eligible voters be discouraged from exercising their franchise? Or …

  The way we frame the inquiry or the solution dictates what we see in the picture. I served on a committee for 5 years called “The Calgary Poverty…