Capstone — The Becoming of Possibility: From Cosmos to Mind

Across the domains of physics, biology, and neuroscience, a single conceptual thread emerges: possibility exists relationally before it is actualised, and the structures of reality, life, and cognition are the traces of its actualisation. The series we have explored — Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Natural Selection, and Neuronal Group Selection — are not isolated insights; they are complementary explorations of how potential becomes actualised through relational constraint and selection.

1. Physical Actualisation

In Relativity, the universe is not a stage populated by pre-existing entities but a network of relations among events, in which spacetime itself emerges from constraints and relative alignment. Quantum mechanics further deepens this view: particles, superpositions, and entanglement reveal that even at the microcosmic scale, possibility is structured probabilistically and actualised relationally.

2. Biological Actualisation

Darwin and Mendel extended this principle to life. Evolution demonstrates that variation, selection, and inheritance are selectional processes actualising potential across generations. Traits, functions, and forms are not pre-given; they emerge from relational constraints within populations. Life itself becomes a semiotic system, where stability and coherence are the products of relational alignment.

3. Cognitive Actualisation

Edelman internalises this logic within the nervous system. Neuronal group selection shows that perception, learning, and consciousness are recursive selectional processes, where neural ensembles stabilise relational patterns to create coherent construals of the world. The mind is evolution turned inward: a living system of potential actualising itself moment by moment.

4. A Continuum of Relational Logic

Viewed together, these series demonstrate that the logic of potential and actualisation is multi-scalar:

• Cosmic: Relativity actualises the potential of events through spacetime relations.

• Subatomic: Quantum mechanics actualises probabilistic potential in physical systems.

• Biological: Evolution actualises differential potential across populations.

• Cognitive: Neuronal group selection actualises potential within neural ensembles.

Across all scales, the principle is consistent: possibility exists only relationally, and is actualised through selective alignment within a field of constraint. What we call reality, life, and mind are the cumulative effects of these selectional actualisations — a continuous unfolding of potential into pattern.

5. The Becoming of Possibility

This perspective reframes our understanding of the universe and our place within it. Rather than seeing phenomena as fixed or predetermined, we recognise them as relational actualisations of potential, contingent yet constrained, emergent yet patterned. From the curvature of spacetime to the firing of neurons, the same semiotic logic operates: possibility becomes actual, and in doing so, generates the very systems that make further actualisation intelligible.

In this light, The Becoming of Possibility is not a study of entities, events, or phenomena in isolation. It is a meta-exploration of relational logic itself — the rules by which potential manifests, stabilises, and differentiates across all domains of existence.