Peter, List, I'm gratified that you found my summary and interpretation of your paper "clear and perception." I was in truth eager to recommend it to the List. Thinking again about your work (and Doug Engelbart's), I have come to believe that you were both ahead of your times.
Thank you for pointing to Michael Heim's book in your post. I found this review of Heim's *Electric Language* especially interesting when read alongside your article. See: "The Corrupt Computer: Electric Language: A Philosophical Study of Word Processing by Michael Heim," reviewed by Edward Mendelson, *The New Republic*. https://mendelson.org/Michael-Heim-Review.pdf Mendelson largely treats the computer as a technology that competes with and often diminishes human cognition. His view seems more skeptical than Heim's in arguing that computers often compete with rather than support reflective thought. Heim himself appears to hold a somewhat more ambivalent position: Electronic technologies transform thought in significant, even profound ways, opening new possibilities for thought -- but also threatening traditional forms of cognition. On the other hand, I read your article, 'Peirce, Virtuality, and Semiotic' as suggesting that what I've referred to as 'external symbolic media' are constitutive of thought itself. Whereas Mendelson worries that computers may replace reflective and creative thought, you emphasize that *thought has always been mediated by external signs and symbolic tools*. Further, while you, Heim, and Mendelson all appear to see computation as significant for writing, especially philosophical writing, yet you begin from very different traditions: Heim from Heidegger and continental phenomenology, Mendelson from the literary-critical tradition, and you from pragmatism and semeiotic; and with some significant consequences. Your work tends to shift the focus from the phenomenology of the user or the practices of the writer to the community of inquiry. For you technologies are neither mere tools (as Mendelson tends to treat them) nor essentially existential 'contexts' (as in Heim), but actual, albeit devative, participants in the continuing growth of signs, thought-habits, and communal inquiry. I think that distinctively Peircean move has considerable potential for reframing contemporary debates, not only about contemporary technologies, but for thought itself. I look forward to your post on foreign language translation, Best, Gary R On Sat, Aug 1, 2026 at 5:46 PM Peter Skagestad <[email protected]> wrote: > Gary, List, > > Thank you, Gary, both recommending my paper and for the clear and > perceptive summary and interpretation of it. When I wrote this paper in the > nineteen nineties I regarded IA and AI as rival research programs: one > regarding computers - like pencils, pen and ink, etc. - as tools for human > thinking, the other seeking to locate thinking in the computer itself. As > noted in an earlier post, I am not really up to date on current AI > research, but I have come to see the two research programs as to some > extent complementary, as one use of AI is to improve human-computer user > interfaces. > > What motivated me to write about these matters in the nineties - other > than my obvious interest in Peirce’s thought - were two very practical > experiences, to wit, word-processing and foreign-language translation. I > found my days spent working with an MS DOS computer in the office while > writing about philosophy with a Macintosh at home, and I found myself > thinking differently - more easily - with the Macintosh than with the pc, > as my thinking was not distracted by the requirements of the program. > Around this time I also read Michael Heim’s ‘Electric Language’, published > in 1990, which discussed the effects on thought of using command-based > word-processing. It was actually from Heim’s book that I first heard of > Engelbart, and my virtuality paper was presented at a panel headed by Heim > at the 1997 Pacific Division Meeting of the APA. > > I have to run now, but will post a few words on foreign-language > translation tomorrow. > > Best, > Peter > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Aug 1, 2026, at 2:58 PM, Gary Richmond <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > List, > I'd like to strongly recommend Peter Skagestad's paper, "Peirce, > Virtuality, and Semiotic," which seems remarkably prescient despite having > been written decades before today's AI systems. But perhaps more important > is what it suggests about virtuality in human semiosis. > https://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Cogn/CognSkag.htm > > Skagestad begins with Peirce's own definition from Baldwin's *Dictionary > of Philosophy and Psychology* (1902): "A virtual X ... is something, not > an X, which has the efficiency (*virtus*) of an X." Virtuality, in this > sense, concerns *functional capability*, not appearance. He then argues > that this idea is deeply embedded in Peirce's semeiotic itself: Since every > Sign stands in an irreducibly triadic relation to its Object and > Interpretant, and every Interpretant usually becomes a further Sign, > semiosis is an open-ended, developmental process. *So the meaning of a > sign lies not in its present occurrence but in its possible future > interpretants and interpretations.* > > From this follows what Skagestad takes to be one of Peirce's most radical > insights: *Thoughts are themselves signs, and because signs have their > being through their possible future interpretants, thought itself is > fundamentally virtual*. As Peirce puts it, "the meaning of a thought is > altogether something virtual." Mind is not something fully present at any > instant but an ongoing developing process extending through time. > > This perspective also helps clarify Peirce's famous remark that if someone > stole his inkstand "the very thoughts would not come to me." Skagestad > makes clear that Peirce isn't saying merely that writing records thoughts. > Instead, pens, paper, diagrams, logical notation, and other *symbolic > media* *participate in the production of thought itself*. As argued in > other related threads, human intelligence has always depended upon such > external symbolic technologies, from alphabets and books to computers and, > today, networks which extend -- and I believe that List members agree, not > replace -- cognition. > > Skagestad concludes that Peirce's semeiotic offers perhaps the most > promising philosophical framework for understanding both human thought and > virtual technologies. Because thought consists of signs, and signs are > essentially virtual, and that cognition depends upon external media, then > modern computational technologies are best understood as augmentations of > human inquiry rather than as substitutes for human minds (read: Douglas > Engelbart's IA). > > I believe that Skagestad's paper deserves renewed attention. Although > written before the contemporary AI era, it anticipates many of the > questions we are now asking and does so by returning directly to Peirce's > own conception of signs, virtuality and, in my view, the growth of inquiry. > > Best, > > Gary R > >
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