Networks of Readiness: Inclination, Ability, and the Dynamics of Potential: 4 Dynamics of Readiness

In Post 3, we explored topologies of readiness across domains, showing how inclination and ability distribute across nodes and pathways. In this post, we examine how readiness itself evolves over time, introducing feedback, reinforcement, and inhibition as mechanisms that shape the flow of actualisation. This gives the system network a dynamic, temporal dimension, turning it into a model of potential in action.

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1. Feedback and reinforcement

Readiness is not static. When a pathway is actualised:

• Success reinforces readiness along that pathway.

  • In language: using a particular construction increases fluency and confidence, boosting both ability and inclination to use it again.

  • In biology: a developmental trajectory that successfully stabilises a structure enhances local cellular competence for subsequent differentiation.

  • In social systems: successful coordination reinforces motivation and capacity for similar collective action in the future.

• Observation and imitation can also shift readiness: nodes/pathways observed to be fruitful gain increased inclination in other agents or systems.

This creates a self-amplifying dynamic, where actualisation shapes future potential, producing patterns of habitual or preferred pathways.

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2. Inhibition and constraint

Not all pathways remain equally ready:

• Inhibition decreases readiness along underutilised or blocked pathways.

  • In language: rarely used constructions may become harder to access.

  • In biology: environmental stress may inhibit certain differentiation pathways.

  • In social systems: failed coordination reduces collective inclination and available ability for similar actions.

• Inhibition can also redirect readiness, forcing the system to explore alternative pathways, which introduces novelty and adaptation.

Together with reinforcement, inhibition produces a dynamic redistribution of readiness across the network, shaping the landscape of likely actualisations.

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3. Temporal evolution of readiness

Readiness evolves over multiple timescales:

1. Short-term shifts: moment-to-moment adjustments in inclination or ability (e.g., attention, energy, context).

2. Medium-term learning: practice, training, or experience reshapes readiness vectors (e.g., language acquisition, skill development).

3. Long-term adaptation: structural or environmental changes alter the topology of the network itself (e.g., cultural evolution, morphogenetic constraints).

These temporal dynamics produce a moving landscape of potential, where pathways open, close, and shift in likelihood continuously.

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4. Cross-domain examples

Language:

• A child acquiring grammar gradually aligns ability and inclination, increasing readiness for certain constructions while other potential paths remain latent.

• Feedback from communication success reinforces some pathways; social correction inhibits others.

Biology:

• Cellular differentiation pathways are primed, inhibited, or reinforced by local signalling, resource availability, and tissue dynamics.

• Morphogenetic fields dynamically redistribute readiness, guiding organismal form.

Social systems:

• Collective action readiness depends on alignment of motivation and resources.

• Successful coordination reinforces norms and practices; failure inhibits similar actions in the short term.

Physics:

• Systems evolve toward stable states where “readiness” is maximal (local minima, resonance states).

• Feedback mechanisms (energy dissipation, oscillatory amplification) dynamically redistribute probability across phase space.

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5. Conceptual payoff

Introducing dynamics into readiness:

• Captures how actualisation reshapes potential, making the network a temporal model of relational potential.

• Explains patterns of habitualisation, adaptation, and emergence across domains.

• Preserves the relational, perspectival ontology: readiness evolves in context, not by external imposition.

• Provides a predictive framework: pathways with high readiness are more likely to be actualised in future instantiations.

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6. Next steps

In the final post of the series, we will synthesise these insights into a general framework for action and actualisation, showing how networks of readiness can model the flow of potential across linguistic, biological, social, and physical domains. This will culminate in a relational theory of action, where actualisation is fully understood as the alignment of readiness across a dynamic, relational network.