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I describe the simplest living organism, the cell, as a symbol-matter system―an observable case of how a natural representation using a word processing format constrains the real-time behavior of a material organism. My purpose is not to model cognition or language at the brain level, which cells have achieved only after some three billion years of evolution. Rather, I use this primeval embodiment of a symbol-matter system as an exercise in mental hygiene for cognitive scientists to test, and hopefully improve, the clarity of their fundamental explanatory concepts. I focus on the assumptions of information processing and direct perception approaches as specific examples of inadequate theories for understanding even simple symbol-matter systems. Based on the genetic organization of cells, I propose a semantic closure principle that requires both the physical constraints of direct perception and the …