Cybernetics & Human Knowing - Thesaurus pilot project
Edited by M&T Thellefsen

Coding

Definition

"A notion which represents the interactions of the observer, not a phenomenon operative in the observed domain. A mapping of a process that occurs in the space of autopoiesis into a process that occurs in the space of human beings (heteropoiesis) and, thus, not a reformulation of the phenomenon." (Maturana & Varela, 1980, p. 135)

The physical and / or semantic translation of a message into a precisely defined code.

Relations:

		coupling
		information
		information theory
		heteropoiesis
		language
		message
		observer
		self-reference
		signs
		symbol

Articles:

Brier, Søren /  Foreword. - Vol. 3/3, 1995

Definitions:

Principia Cybernetica
Encyclopedia Autopoietica
International Encyclopedia of Systems & Cybernetics

 

Principia Cybernetica (web)

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The process of applying a CODE to messages stored in one form or in one medium and thereby obtain TRANSLATIONs, transforms or rewritten versions of the original messages in another form or in another medium. Coding is often motivated by technical necessities or convenience, e.g., in COMMUNICATION processes involving TECHNOLOGY. (Krippendorff)

Encyclopedia Autopoietica

The term "coding" is generally used to denote the symbolic inter-mappings associated with a cognitivist view of communication (e.g., the metaphor of the tube). The autopoietic account of communication as languaging denies that coding is the essence of such communicative interactions.

International Encyclopedia of Systems & Cybernetics

In fact, communication entails successively encoding, transmission in the code’s language and decoding.