Having examined time as a relational horizon and space as emergent construal, we now confront their inextricable interdependence. In relational ontology, time and space are not separable dimensions; they co-actualise in every relational cut, arising together from the instantiation of potentialities within systems.
Co-Emergence through Relational Cuts
Each act of actualisation produces both a temporal horizon and a spatial configuration. One cannot exist without the other. To instantiate a phenomenon in time is simultaneously to define its spatial relations; to delineate space is simultaneously to locate it temporally. The duality of space and time is thus not a property of an external world, but the signature of relational construals that bring phenomena into presence.
Consider a bee visiting a flower. The trajectory of its flight is a temporal sequence traced by successive instantiations of motion. At the same time, its position relative to the flower, other bees, and environmental features constitutes a spatial pattern. These dimensions are co-actualised: remove the temporal horizon, and the trajectory collapses; remove the spatial configuration, and the notion of movement loses meaning.
Implications for Relational Dynamics
The co-emergence of time and space reframes classical concepts such as simultaneity, sequence, and causality. Events are not ordered on a universal clock or mapped onto a pre-existing spatial grid. Their “before” and “after,” “here” and “there,” arise only in the context of relational systems. Multiple systems may produce overlapping or divergent spatiotemporal patterns, revealing the perspectival and emergent nature of what we conventionally call chronology and geometry.
Temporal and Spatial Resonance
Interactions between systems are shaped by the alignment—or misalignment—of their emergent spatiotemporal patterns. When systems resonate, relational cuts coincide: events, positions, and durations intersect meaningfully. When they misalign, conflicts, gaps, or paradoxes emerge. Understanding these dynamics requires moving beyond linear time or fixed space and embracing the co-actualisation of temporal and spatial horizons as inherently relational.
Consequences for Phenomenology
For conscious experience, this framework offers a radical reconception of “being in the world.” Our perception of motion, distance, rhythm, and change is inseparable from the relational cuts that instantiate them. The spatiotemporal world is not a backdrop; it is an ongoing co-creation, a relational tapestry woven from the perspectival horizons of countless systems.
Next in the series: Relational Causality and Temporal Logic — we will explore how the interdependence of time and space reframes causality, sequence, and the structure of interactions across systems.
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