#32; work on Being and Sign commenced

Today I have had a writing day, divided into half an article writing day and half a book writing day. This included adding some 100 words to the article "Når gode råd er plagsomme" (When good advice is bothersome), which I co-write with Svein Tuastad, and planning for proof-reading of the book chapter «Steffens´ early outlook reconsidered. Nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene», which is forthcoming in an anthology edited by Benedikt Jager and Marius Timmann Mjaaland and published by Karl Alber Verlag.

It also included starting writing on my next book manuscript, Being and Sign, with some 300 words written and some plans made.

This was writing day #32 this Autumn (starting July 1st), with a total of 3,5 of the writing days devoted to article writing, and 28,5 book writing days, to date.

"Mars and the Earthlings" book webpage launched; publication date December 11th

Springer Nature has now launched a website for the forthcoming book Mars and the Earthlings: A Realistic View on Mars Exploration and Settlement, which I am one of ca. 60 authors of. The book will appear in the book series Space and Society. Planned publication date is said to be December 11th. The book will be included in Springer´s e-book package for Physics and astronomy.

Book description:

In an era of public Mars fascination, this book offers an objective presentation of the challenges of crewed Mars missions and discusses scenarios of Mars settlements under scientific, technical, social, economic , ethical and political aspects. With the aim to make the reader comprehend what is plausible and what is at stake, the book tries to clarify misconceptions and half-truths spreading rapidly in the public. The authors argue that approximations and misinformation should be countered for two main reasons. First, to avoid missing out on the benefits that Mars exploration may bring, including major scientific discoveries and an inspiring, federative human endeavor. Second, to remediate dangerous delusions – such as the idea that humanity could be transferred there should the Earth become inhabitable in the near term. In preparation for this book a group of European, world-renowned scientists from fields as diverse as astronomy, planetology, geology, biology, philosophy, or economics, as well as astronauts and science-fiction writers, was gathered to discuss Mars missions ranging from near-term robotic missions, all the way to large-scale settlements and even the feasibility of terraforming. For each, they draw arguments from their domains of expertise to discuss what is feasible and what is desirable. The result provides researchers with an objective review of the field, policy makers with a reference to make informed decisions, and the general public with a tool to form educated opinions.

Ex.phil. anthology to be shredded

I have been notified by Aschehoug that the anthology text book Ex.phil. for sosialfag, which I edited, will be shredded. I will take over 25 copies of the book, with the rest being shredded. The book will remain available as an e-book.

#1; progress plan for book project "Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement"

Today I have had the first writing day this Spring, mostly devoted to making a writing plan for the entire Spring (see previous post). I have also made a draft progress plan for my book project Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement, estimating some 75 writing days resulting in a finished manuscript in June 2025. This would realistically leave space for only 10 article/chapter writing days in Autumn 2024 as well as in Spring 2025. 

Book "Elemental-Embodied Thinking for a New Era" now described and advertised online

The book Elemental-Embodied Thinking for a New Era is now advertised online by Springer. It will include my chapter "A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition and the environmental crisis". Publication date is said to be November 26th.

Pre-orders are now possible e.g. via Amazon.

Cover of book "Organ Crosstalk in Acute Kidney Injury: Basic Concepts and Clinical Practices"

This is the cover of the book Organ Crosstalk in Acute Kidney Injury: Basic Concepts and Clinical Practices (forthcoming on Springer, edited by Carlos Guido Musso), which includes my text "Nosology and Semiotics" as its first chapter:

See also:

Book featuring "Nosology and Semiotics" chapter now advertised online

Book featuring "Nosology and Semiotics" chapter now advertised online

There are now some descriptions of the forthcoming book Organ Crosstalk in Acute Kidney Injury: Basic Concepts and Clinical Practices, where I contribute with the opening chapter, "Nosology and semiotics". I found a book description on the webpage of Amazon Australia, the bookshop Lavoisier, and GoodReads. At Lavoisier, publication date is said to be in September 2023.    

Description:

This is an original work dedicated to an important and current topic in nephrology: organ crosstalk in acute renal injury. Acute kidney injury is a prevalent and serious syndrome. The related mortality to this syndrome has not been significantly reduced in the last decades despite the advances in renal replacement therapy technology. For this reason, a new approach to obtain an effective treatment is urgently needed. The organ crosstalk perspective could be useful in order to achieve this objective since it implies a very early acute kidney injury diagnose and treatment. This book includes a comprehensive review of the organ crosstalk perspective in acute kidney injury. Organized in two parts, the chapters in the first part present general subjects as an introduction to analysing the crosstalk concept. These chapters give an overview of the concepts of biosemiotics, hormones, neurotransmitters, cytokines, signalling and adhesion molecules, organ intercommunication, and epigenetics. The second part gathers chapters on the different kidney crosstalk, such as brain, lung, heart, liver, gut, and placenta. Finally, there is a chapter dedicated to the influence of renal replacement treatment on kidney crosstalk. Since acute kidney injury is a topic of interest to many health professionals, this work will be a useful resource to general practitioners, internal medicine physicians, geriatricians, nephrologists, critical care therapists, immunologists, and also biologists and bioengineers.

Neurosemiotics chapter announced online by Routledge

The Routledge Handbook of Semiosis and the Brain is now advertised online by Routledge.

My chapter will appear as chapter 5.

Reference for my chapter:

Tønnessen, Morten, forthcoming. Beyond the human animal: Towards a cross-species neurosemiotics. In Adolfo García & Agustin Ibanez (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Semiosis and the Brain (Routledge Handbooks in Linguistics). Routledge. Planned publication date November 2022.

Book "Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism" published

On Wednesday I was informed by Springer that the book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism, which I have co-written (as second author) with Alexei Sharov, has been published. On that day this did not appear to be the case judging by the book´s webpage, which was unchanged, with no sales links. By Thursday, however, info online was updated, and the book can now be bought in Hardcover version (109.99 Euro) or eBook version (93.08 Euro).

The book is said to be part of the following eBook packages (for institutional subscribers):

• Biomedical and Life Sciences
• Biomedical and Life Sciences (RO)

Chapters can also be bought individually (24.95 Euro) - preview (freely available) includes abstract and references:

Introduction

Historical overview of developments of notions of agency

Human agency

Agency in non-human organisms

Origins of life

Conceptualizing agency

Semiosis

Semiogenesis

Phenomenology

Composite agency

Human agency and ecology

Agentology: Crosspollination of science and philosophy

Two PDF files of significance can freely be accessed online:

• Front matter (pp. i-xxiii), which includes Preface, Acknowledgements, table of contents, List of figures, and List of tables
• Back matter (pages 349-372), which includes Glossary and Index

The book is volume no. 25 in the Biosemiotics book series.

On Amazon publication date is now said to be February 9th (2 days ago). The price here is $139.99 for Hardcover version. Kindle version is available for $29.55 for rent, or $114.16 for sale. Kindle version is said to be 687 pages long.

I am still waiting to receive print copy as well as eBook version personally.

Book "Semiotic agency" announced online by Springer Nature; coming soon

Our book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism has now been announced online.

Reference:

Sharov, Alexei & Morten Tønnessen (in print, 2021). Semiotic Agency: Science beyond Mechanism (Biosemiotics 25). Springer Nature. DOI 10.1007/978-3-030-89484-9, ISBN 978-3-030-89483-2 (Hardcover), 978-3-030-89484-9 (ebook).

ABOUT THIS BOOK (from Springer´s presentation of the book):

This book invites readers to embark on a journey into the world of agency encompassing humans, other organisms, cells, intracellular molecular agents, colonies, populations, ecological systems, and artificial autonomous systems. We combine mechanistic and non-mechanistic approaches in the analysis of the function and evolution of organisms, their subagents, and multi-organism systems, and in this way offer a theoretical platform for integrating biosemiotics with both natural science and the humanities/social sciences. Agents are autonomous systems that incorporate knowledge on how to make sense of their environment and use it to achieve their goals. The functions of all agents are supported by mechanisms at the lowest level; however, the explanatory power of mechanistic analysis is not sufficient for complex agents. Non-mechanistic methods rely on the goal-directedness of agents whose dynamics follow self-stabilized dynamic attractors. The properties of attractors depend on stable or slowly changing factors, and such dependencies can be interpreted as sign relations if they are adaptive in nature. Agents can replace or redirect mechanisms on demand in order to preserve their functions; for performing higher-level semiotic functions, mechanisms are thus only means. We assume that mechanism and semiosis are not mutually exclusive, and that simple agents can interpret signs mechanistically. This assumption allows us to extend semiotic analysis to all agents, including ribosomes in cells, computers, and robots. This book challenges established traditions in natural science and the humanities/social sciences: semiotics no longer appears as restricted to humans and rational thinking, and biology is no longer limited to rely exclusively on mechanistic reasoning. 

Semiotic agency book: Book proposal form

Along with Alexei Sharov, I have contributed to filling out a book proposal form for our forthcoming Springer Nature monograph Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism. Our book project has already been accepted, now the contract should be signed.

Svendsen book review revised

Today I have slightly revised my book review of Lars Svendsen´s book Å forstå dyr for Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift, following editorial feedback.

Spring´s eleventh article writing day

On Friday this week I had this Spring´s eleventh article writing day, with some 4 hours devoted to amending a resubmitted article, and pondering upon the table of contents for a joint book project.

Global CCS Institute webinar attended

Yesterday I attended a webinar held by Global CCS Institute, on "Telling the Norwegian CCS Story: Part 3 - Northern Lights: A European CO2 transport and storage project" - as research for a book project I am working on.

Some 26.000 words written on "Utslippsfrie nye verden?" manuscript

In 2018, I wrote some 26.430 words on my book manuscript Utslippsfrie nye verden? Karbonfangst i lys av norsk økofilosofi (Emission-free new world? Carbon capture and storage in light of Norwegian ecophilosophy). In comparison, I wrote 19.459 words on this manuscript in 2016 (autumn), and 5.142 words in 2017 (when I took a break with this manuscript to work on the collective popular science monograph Ulvetider, with Lars Lenth and Petter Bøckman, which was published autumn 2017). Total word count is now 58.089. Judging by length alone, I should be able to finish the manuscript in 2019.

Lenth interview on wolves reappeared in 3 local newspapers

The interview with my co-author of Ulvetider (along with Petter Bøckman) Lars Lenth, which appeared in Dagsavisen yesterday, today appeared in:

* Dagsavisen Østfold

* Rogaland Avis

* Fremtiden

These local newspapers share content with Dagsavisen.

See also:

Christmas time, wolf and wine...

Ulvetider published as audiobook

Our book Ulvetider - rovdyret som splitter Norge has now been published as an audiobook, in MP3 format - see presentation and excerpt (in Norwegian) at Bokklubben. The book appeared in hardback edition and as ebook in the autumn of 2017, and has appeared in pocket version and audiobook version this autumn.

This is my first audiobook.

UiS denies employees to buy books from campus bookstore

Oddly enough, it appears that my employer, the University of Stavanger, will not any more let me buy books from the only academic bookstore on campus, SIS Bok.

"Ulvetider" book featured on catalogue front page

The autumn 2017 catalogue of Norwegian publishing house Vega forlag has been released. On its front page it features Ulvetider, co-written by me with Lars Lenth and Petter Bøckman and due for publication in November.

The Semiotics of Animal Representations nearing publication

The book The Semiotics of Animal Representations, which I am editing along with Kadri Tüür, is approaching publication. In December we re-submitted a full and partly revised manuscript, and in January we were notified that all chapters had been accepted for publication. We are currently working with more minute changes (following feedback from Rodopi and proof-comments from contributors) and composing a subject index.