  Knowledge is a central concept within both Bayesian inference and the
mathematical and philosophical program of logic and semiotics initiated by
Charles Sanders Peirce and further developed by George Spencer-Brown and Louis
Kauffman. The latter school is more philosophical than is usual with the
practitioners of Bayesian inference and claims the existence of a world mind.
When these two disciplines inform each other semiotics is provided with
mathematical mechanism and Bayesian inference is seen to be closely related to
the act of distinction, the fundamental basis of logic in the work of
Spencer-Brown. This hybridization also suggests a definition for knowledge
within Bayesian inference; a definition that has been curiously lacking. Given
that Darwinian processes are physical implementations of Bayesian inference and
are utilized within numerous scientific theories across a wide range of
disciplines as mechanisms for the creation and evolution of knowledge we may
view the conjunction of these theories, within universal Darwinism, as
descriptive of a world mind. Placing the world mind in this context provides
detailed support from the scientific literature and goes some way to refute the
charges of mysticism which have been leveled at the semiotic approach.
