Comparing the complexity of written and molecular symbolic systems

Abstract

Symbolic systems (SSs) are uniquely products of living systems, such that symbolism and life may be inextricably intertwined phenomena. Within a given SS, there is a range of symbol complexity over which signaling is functionally optimized. This range exists relative to a complex and potentially infinitely large background of latent, unused symbol space. Understanding how symbol sets sample this latent space is relevant to diverse fields including biochemistry and linguistics.

We quantitatively explored the graphic complexity of two biosemiotic systems: genetically encoded amino acids (GEAAs) and written language. Molecular and graphical notions of complexity are highly correlated for GEAAs and written language. Symbol sets are generally neither minimally nor maximally complex relative to their latent spaces, but exist across an objectively definable distribution, with the GEAAs having especially low complexity. The selection pressures guiding these disparate systems are explicable by symbol production and disambiguation efficiency. These selection pressures may be universal, offer a quantifiable metric for comparison, and suggest that all life in the Universe may discover optimal symbol set complexity distributions with respect to their latent spaces. If so, the “complexity” of individual components of SSs may not be as strong a biomarker as symbol set complexity distribution.