Semiosis is a term originally used by Charles S. Peirce to denote any sign generation or sign process; in a more general sense, the activity of the sign.
Signs are generally considered to be tools used by humans and animals. In themselves, they are inert and inefficient. Semiosis is often used as a challenge to such a perspective, as it means an innate dynamic process over which people who use signs exercise little or no control. In other words, signs are not pure tools. They set up their own agency.
For Peirce, semiosis is an irreducibly triadic process in which the object creates its own sign, and in turn, the sign creates its own interpreter. This interpreter in turn creates further interpreters, to infinity.
In this sense, semiosis is a process in which a potentially endless series of interpreters arises.
