Planetary-Temporal Meaning Networks II: 1 Temporal Semiotics and the Reflexive Horizon

How meaning propagates through time, how futures are made thinkable, and how planetary-scale symbolic infrastructures sustain coherence across shifting temporal gradients.

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1. Time as Semiotic Relation

Within relational ontology, time is not a neutral container but a gradient of relational differentiation.

What we call “past,” “present,” and “future” are orientations within the semiotic field—patterns of readiness and affordance that constrain and enable one another.

• The past functions as sedimented readiness: the accumulated configurations that structure current potential.

• The present is the active cut of construal: where readiness and affordance align into situated coherence.

• The future emerges as gradient—an open field of differential inclination awaiting alignment.

Thus, temporal structure is not linear progression but semiotic topology: a network of interacting gradients through which meaning propagates.

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2. The Reflexive Horizon

The reflexive horizon marks the limit of coherent anticipation—the outer boundary of what a system can construe as possible.

It is not a fixed temporal distance but a dynamically shifting region of symbolic reach:

• Each semiotic system projects a reflexive horizon conditioned by its affordances, constraints, and historical sedimentations.

• Within planetary-symbolic infrastructures, multiple horizons overlap, interfere, and synchronise, producing planetary-temporal networks that coordinate meaning across scales.

• Reflexive expansion—extending the horizon of coherent anticipation—is a primary driver of adaptive capacity and innovation.

The horizon is therefore both epistemic (what can be thought) and ontological (what can become).

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3. Temporal Coherence as Reflexive Alignment

Planetary-temporal networks sustain coherence through reflexive alignment—the continuous calibration of semiotic gradients across timescales.

• Local symbolic acts (policy decisions, narratives, technological designs) anchor meaning in the present while projecting futures into shared interpretive fields.

• Global infrastructures (media systems, data architectures, climate models) synchronise those projections, producing a collectively navigable temporal topology.

• Reflexive feedback then revises the orientation of both past and future, integrating novelty into systemic continuity.

Temporal coherence is thus a living function: the ongoing stabilisation of becoming across nested horizons.

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4. Planetary Implications

In planetary-symbolic contexts:

• Reflexive horizons interlock through communication, modelling, and shared imaginaries, forming multi-scalar temporal ecologies.

• These ecologies enable distributed anticipation—systems that can think and act across deep-time gradients (ecological, cultural, technological).

• Temporal semiotics becomes a condition of planetary sustainability: without coherent reflexive horizons, action fragments, and the future becomes incoherent.

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Next: Anticipation as Temporal Alignment

Having defined the reflexive horizon and temporal coherence, we next turn to anticipation—the mechanism by which planetary-temporal networks orient themselves toward possible futures while preserving systemic continuity.