Semiotics for the Future. A Semiotic Approach to Prospection, Memory, and Perception

This paper examines anticipation as a fundamental cognitive and semiotic phenomenon through which humans construct meaning and interpret the world. Drawing on enactive theories of perception, Bayesian inference models, and semiotic frameworks, the study positions anticipation not as mere prediction, but as an active, creative process that generates “significant surfaces” (Paolucci, 2021: 6) mediating our relationship with the environment. The investigation explores the intrinsic connection between memory and prospection, supported by neuroimaging evidence that shows overlapping neural systems for both processes. Through analyses of Proust’s madeleine episode and design practices, the paper discusses how memory functions not as passive storage but as an imaginative reconstruction oriented toward future action, while prospection operates as a form of abductive reasoning that creates new semiotic universes. The study refers, then, to the distinction between “the clock of narration” and “the clock of interpretation” introduced by Mihai Nadin (2014) to illuminate the temporal gap where human anticipatory capacity emerges. By reconceptualizing anticipation as semiotic action rather than deterministic prediction, this paper offers insights into how humans navigate temporality through creative acts of signification that transcend simple cause-effect relationships, and how the past and the future inhabit the present.