Think about a sign. Or a symbol, an idea, a thought, a concept, or a representation. What kind of thing are you really thinking about?

In 1972, NASA pinned a message to a spaceship, hoping one day an alien life form might find it and understand it. The plaque was full of symbols — diagrams, drawings, a raised human hand. Those symbols mean something to us. But only because we know they’re symbols — and because we know what they mean. Could an alien understand them too?

This week, I’m asking: what gives a sign, a symbol, or a thought its meaning at all?

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