Looking ahead in the world of science

Complex coordination (systems working together to produce some specific outcome) plays an essential role in biology, whereas in regular physics coordination manifests only in simple forms. Through their search for ‘theories of everything’, physicists have been led to an oversimplified picture of the natural world, one that works very well in the situations used to test physical theories, but which fails to address clearly issues such as quantum observation, thought, and meaning. A synthesis of the approaches of physicists and biosemioticians (biologists who take due account of meaning) is likely to lead to advances in our understanding of the natural world comparable to those associated with the advent of quantum theory. The talk was recorded and is available here.