Meaning carrier
Meaning appears as a meme in the form of an idea, topic, concept model, plan, or practical adoption in a meaning carrier that processes and transfers the content to another meaning carrier. The meme is the core of a message, the real meaning, or like M. Csikszentmihalyi expresses it, „any permanent pattern of matter or information produced by an act of human intentionality”, i.e., anything that is causally created and thought by humans. The meme science is memetics that deals with meme mechanisms, e.g., fidelity, fertility, longevity. Most outstanding is the contagiousness of memes that leads to an acute transmission.
Without meaning, carrier meme cannot be localized currently. The two meaning carriers are things and people. Things contain meaning in form, function, and their image. Humans think and communicate meaning in words, pictures, and emotions. Meme processing takes place in perception, thinking, communication, and acting. Although the meaning carrier transfers the message, the meaning is eventually created in the head of the observer as a personal interpretation, e.g., ‚there is no bank’ can mean: bench, riverside, financial institute, etc.; ‚he has no reason’ can mean: cause, explanation, right, etc.; ‚the wing is large’ can mean: birds arm, part of a building, stage, unit of airplanes, one’s protection, etc. The conscious consideration of the meaning carrier facilitates the reduction of ambiguity and a simplified transfer of memes (primarily through memefication).
Meaning carriers are: people and things.
- People
Crucial meaning carriers are humans because they can produce, process, store, and above all, interpret meaning. Attention determines while perceiving what is consciously or unconsciously noticed, everything else gets quasi ‚ignored’. During thinking, facts are linked with existing mental models, and meaning develops. Personal, verbal, or nonverbal expressions are found and passed on throughout communication. This can also be done by using a thing, e.g., a document, picture, sculpture. Another meaning-carrying aspect of humans is the act (doing and behavior) that makes meaning implicitly visible.
- Things
are artifacts that people created. Design components are the form, the original function as well as the related image. The form is an expression of zeitgeist or fashion and provides thereby related values and associations. The function is the underlying purpose of the thing. Over time it can change; e.g., the fountain pen, which was initially developed for writing, was replaced by other „typewriters” and serves nowadays as a status symbol for the signer. The image became important in the age of mass production since it assigns meaning to inexpensive mass products, valorizing them. Examples are consumer goods that suggest using a unique attitude, e.g., mobile phones that emphasize exceptional personality.
Meaning carriers are essential as a vehicle, but also as a recipient of meaning. For this reason, everybody should always be aware of the respective, meaning-carrying role of people and things.