The human faculty for structured communication - language - is widely regarded as a cognitive module that is functionally distinct from the rest of cognition and unique in its ability to support structured communication. However, because language is a relative newcomer on the evolutionary scene, it could be edifying to compare it to other biological phenomena that involve the processing and communication of structured information. A number of observations supporting this view suggest themselves. First, in primates, language has been preceded by millions of years by the faculty of vision, whose ability to deal with structured objects and scenes is no less impressive than the ability of homo sapiens to put them into words. Second, intricate and often strikingly ingenious mechanisms underlie communication in non-human species, from insects, through birds, to apes. Third, certain somatic mechanisms, such as the neurotransmitter infrastructure of the nervous system, or the signaling apparatus of the immune system, have evolved specifically to subserve communication needs whose complexity, on the microscopic scale, rivals that of the organism as a whole on the macroscopic scale. The seminar series and the symposium will explore the implications of the broad view of communication outlined above.