SEMIODYNAMICS: A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Ageing as Loss of Biosemiotic Plasticity

This theory note introduces semiodynamics, a theoretical framework for understanding ageing as the progressive loss of biosemiotic plasticity. Semiodynamics studies the temporal evolution of signal–response relations by analysing four core functions of biological semiosis: discrimination, transduction, adaptive response, and organisational coherence. Drawing on biosemiotics, systems biology, basal cognition, and complexity theory, the article argues that ageing can be conceptualised as a decline in interpretive competence, wherein organisms increasingly fail to differentiate signals, propagate them coherently, respond adaptively, and maintain systemic integration. By reframing biomarkers and physiological changes as indicators of semiodynamic degradation rather than isolated hallmarks, this framework provides a unified account of ageing grounded in meaningful interaction between organisms and environments. Semiodynamics thus offers a novel conceptual lens for gerontology and positions ageing as a fundamentally interpretive phenomenon.