Inclination, Ability, Affordance, and Coherence: Global and Local Dynamics in the Topology of Becoming

In the topology of becoming, a fascinating pattern emerges: some aspects of the field operate globally, while others manifest locally. Understanding this distinction is key to grasping how the world sustains its own possibility.

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Global Properties: Orientation and Sustenance

Two key global properties shape the topology of becoming:

1. Inclination — the field’s overarching disposition, the vector of openness across the entire topology. Inclination is not tied to any single event; it is the directionality of potential itself, the way the field “wants” to unfold.

2. Coherence — the reflexive resonance that maintains the field’s continuity. Coherence ensures that local events do not dissipate the field’s offerability, binding gradients and attractors into a sustained relational architecture.

Global properties operate across scales and domains. They set the stage for what is possible without specifying the exact form of local events. Inclination and coherence are like the wind and the current: they shape all movement without dictating the path of any single particle.

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Local Properties: Actualisation and Offering

By contrast, ability and affordance are local:

1. Ability — the capacity of a particular node, entity, or locality to realise readiness. Ability is context-dependent; it depends on local configurations of the field and the specific capacities present at that point.

2. Affordance — the point of intersection between inclination and ability. Affordance is the local manifestation of potential, the moment where the global orientation of the field meets a concrete capacity to act or be interpreted.

Local properties are the expressions of the global field. They determine which possibilities are actualised in specific events, molecules, or utterances. In other words, they answer the question: what can happen here, right now?

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Conceptual Map: Global vs. Local Dynamics

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Narrative Summary of the Map

In this topology, the field unfolds through the interplay of global and local properties. Global properties — inclination and coherence — shape the overall orientation and stability of potential. Inclination sets the vector of openness, while coherence sustains relational alignment and preserves offerability.

Local properties — ability and affordance — express potential in specific contexts. Ability reflects the capacity of a particular node or entity to realise readiness, and affordance arises where global inclination intersects with local ability, producing concrete manifestations of potential.

Global and local properties are in continuous dialogue. Global tendencies orient and sustain the field, while local actualisations feed back, adjusting resonance and recalibrating coherence. This interplay keeps the field open yet structured, differentiated yet unified, enabling the ongoing continuity of becoming.

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Takeaway

In short, the world’s becoming is a dance between the global and the local. Inclination and coherence guide and sustain the field as a whole, while ability and affordance shape what actually emerges in each moment. Together, they form a dynamic feedback loop: the field stays open to possibility, even as it maintains continuity and structure. Becoming is not imposed from outside; it unfolds where readiness, offering, and resonance intersect — a continuous, self-sustaining topology of potential.