Series context: In previous posts, we explored how meaning shapes non-meaning and how phenomena emerge as relational patterns. Here, we extend the metaphor of lanterns on the ocean to show how perception unfolds across time, guided by memory, expectation, and prior meaning.
Memory as Pre-Lit Lanterns
Imagine the ocean of non-meaning at night. Every past experience you have is like a lantern that has already been lowered. These pre-lit lanterns subtly shape the darkness around them:
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They create gradients where new patterns are more likely to emerge.
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They influence attention, guiding where new lanterns are lowered.
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They stabilise certain shapes or phenomena, making them more likely to appear again.
Memory, then, is not a static record. It is an active, shaping force in perception, structuring the relational field of meaning and non-meaning.
Expectation as Dynamic Guidance
Expectation is like a moving lantern above the ocean, scanning for familiar patterns or probable configurations:
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Anticipated phenomena emerge more readily because the field has been primed.
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Novel phenomena can only stabilise in regions where potential has not yet been structured by prior meaning.
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The interplay of expectation and novelty ensures that perception is both coherent and generative.
In this way, perception is always a dynamic negotiation between past actualisations (memory), probable patterns (expectation), and unstructured potential (non-meaning).
Perception as Temporal Phasing
Perception is therefore not a frozen snapshot of the world but a continuously unfolding temporal process:
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Past actualisations: Pre-lit lanterns provide structure, continuity, and context.
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Present attention: New lanterns are lowered, stabilising phenomena in real-time.
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Future potential: Dark patches, or unlit regions of the ocean, represent the open field of possibilities for novelty and discovery.
Phenomena, then, are temporal patterns of relational meaning, continuously emerging, dissolving, and reconfiguring across time.
Implications for Experience and Understanding
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Perception is participatory: We are co-creators of the patterns we experience.
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Memory and expectation shape reality: Past actualisations structure future perception; potentiality is never neutral.
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Non-meaning is fertile: Dark regions are the wellspring of new phenomena, waiting to be phased into existence.
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Collective perception is possible: Shared memory and expectation can synchronise the phasing of phenomena across groups.
Looking Ahead
Next, we will explore the historical debate between immanent and transcendent meaning, and how the relational view reconciles these perspectives. We will see that meaning is simultaneously emergent and directional, shaping phenomena and potential without existing independently from actualisation.
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