"The semiotic relations between subunits that collectively account for the stability of the large-scale or holistic system (for instance the ant hill, the multicellular organism ...) must necessarily be geared to respond to changes in the environment in ways that do not threaten the integrity of the large-scale system. Subunits, for their part, must receive messages telling them how to uphold the macro-system, and probably the easiest way to do this is to distribute the needs of the macro-system via indexical signs. ... The point is that the semiotic emergence whereby the system was gradually established in the course of evolution necessarily also demanded the invention of semiotic means for assuring the stability of the system, and these semiotic means are precisely what we understand by downward causation.

Downward causation and semiotic emergence are thus two interwoven, but not identical, aspects of the same process."

Slots and Values
ref	260-1
source	Unnamed