Denis Noble convincingly describes the artifacts of theory building in the Modern Synthesis as having been surpassed by the available evidence, indicating more active and less gene-centric evolutionary processes than previously thought. We diagnosis the failure of theory holders to dutifully update their beliefs according to new findings as a microcosm of the prevailing larger social inability to deal with competing paradigms. For understanding life, Noble suggests that there is no privileged level of semiotic interpretation. Understanding multi-level semiosis along with organism and environment contrapunctally, according to Jakob von Uexküll’s theoretical biology, can contribute to the emerging extended evolutionary synthesis.

丹尼斯·诺布尔令人信服地描述了现代综合理论构建的过程，因为已有证据已经超越了该过程，这表明比以前认为的更加活跃，并且以基因为中心的进化过程更少。我们诊断为理论持有人未能根据新发现忠实地更新他们的信念，这是普遍存在的更大的社会无力应对竞争范式的缩影。为了理解生活，诺布尔建议没有符号学解释的特权级别。根据雅各布·冯·埃克斯库尔（Jakob vonUexküll）的理论生物学，矛盾地理解多层次符号学以及生物和环境，可以为新兴的扩展进化合成做出贡献。