Genome as (hyper)text: From metaphor to theory

Abstract

Abstract The similarity between language and genetic information transmission processing has been recognized since molecular genetics was founded. Numerous attempts have been made to use linguistics techniques to decipher protein genes. The modest informational impact of various approaches to decoding the “protein language” was predictable: this type of technique is limited by the processes of encoding and at best helps compile a dictionary of units. However, this technique cannot describe a language and identify the semantic and textual structures that are decisive for communication. Thus, the functions of a large amount of non-coding DNA remain unclear. A text (but not a sign) should be regarded as an artefact of the creation, transmission, conservation and transformation of information. A general theory of text should be capable of describing linguistic texts and the process of their structuring, functioning and transformation. It should also be able to represent the biochemical structure of a genome as a hypertext that consists of an ordered subset of other texts. A text can be considered to be a quasi-organism that possesses memory, creative-cognitive characteristics and communicative force, and a cell can be considered as a quasi-intelligence capable of manipulating abstract semiotic entities. Such an approach requires the construction of a new, multimodal, and text-oriented version of semiotics (next-generation semiotics), in which text and context are the basic concepts and signs and meanings are considered to be context-dependent variables and, simultaneously, context-forming operators.