The first objective of this article is to replace the objects of the humanistic disciplines (culture and symbolic meaning) in the continuity of the objects of the natural sciences. I make the hypothesis that meaning does not suddenly appear with humanity but rather that different layers of coding and memory (quantum, atomic, genetic, nervous and symbolic) are gradually piling up and becoming more complex, the symbolic stratum being only the latest of the “writing machines”. The second concern of the text is to define the specificity and unity of the symbolic layer, and thus the field of the human sciences. By contrast with a certain logocentric tradition, I show that symbolism includes semiotics (such as cooking or music) where the signifier/signified cut-off is not as relevant as it is for languages. The third issue of this essay is to show that humanity’s cultural forms and interpretative powers evolve with its writing machines. The emergence of digital technology, in particular, suggests a refinement of the human sciences to the point of calculating semantic complexity. This attempt to redefine human sciences in the continuity of the natural sciences presupposes an ontology - or meta-ontology, to use Marcello Vitali-Rosati’s expression - for which the notions of writing and memory are central and to which, at odds with Kantian criticism, accepts the full reality of natural spatiality and temporality.