Signs in the heaven or our understanding of the cosmos with the help of signs are
two major questions of a new field, which may be called “cosmological semiotics”.
On the one hand the moving stars, the sun and the moon were since Neolithic times
a domain of geographical, temporal and mythical orientation for human populations,
on the other hand specific sign systems had to be designed for the understanding
of cosmological processes and their presumed impact on human life.
The astronomy (astrology) in Mesopotamia (eighteenth to fifteenth centuries B.C.)
established a code for the reading of celestial signs (omina). These traditions
led to classical astrology. An early geographical usage is reported from Polynesia,
where maps of stars and their motion relative to specific islands were used as orientation
since. The mythical tradition of astrology touched questions of semiotics and semantics
in the work of Ramon Llull (Raymundus Lullus, 1232–1316) and in a neoplatonicism
adapted to Copernican cosmology in the work of Giordano Bruno (1548–1600); cf. Wildgen
(1998: Das kosmische Gedächtnis).
In actual discussions on physical cosmology the question of the first origins of
consciousness (cf. evolutionary
and cognitive semiotics)
and the interdependence between the rise of consciousness and the cosmological laws
which it allows to uncover is asked. Are there universes which did not give rise
to consciousness and therefore have different laws (which are inaccessible)?
A question near to science fiction concerns the possibility of communication with
intelligent beings outside our solar system. Could a mode of understanding bridge
the gulf between totally different biological beings with different types of intelligence
and social needs?