We employ the concept of generalized media of communication in order to tackle this problem, and to designate devices additional to everyday language, devices which are symbolically generalized codes of selection, the function of which is to provide the capacity for intersubjective transmission of acts of selection over shorter or longer chains. Truth, love, power, money2 are outstanding examples of this kind of device which have evolved successfully. Through the generalizing capacity of such media, structures of expectation and patterns of motivation are formed which make it possible for selections made by one individual to be relevant to another, in the sense that he is aware of them and also does not treat them as an open question but performs his own selections as consequences of them.

DEFINE: Defines the concept of generalized media of communication in systems theory terms. XREF: Plausibly connects to Parsons' and Luhmann's sociological systems theory regarding symbolically generalized media.

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 207