If constraints can shape themselves, then horizons cannot remain flat. They must be capable of containing, intersecting, and transforming one another. Possibility, once understood relationally, reveals a further depth: horizons fold into other horizons, producing layered fields of constraint and potential.
This post explores how nested and interacting horizons generate the recursive structure through which possibility evolves.
Horizons Are Not Singular
A horizon is often imagined as a single boundary: a limit on what can occur. But in practice, horizons are plural and stratified:
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A local horizon governs immediate actualisations.
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Broader horizons constrain the local one, shaping what kinds of distinctions are even intelligible.
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Meta-horizons govern the formation and transformation of those broader horizons themselves.
Each horizon is thus situated within others, and no horizon operates in isolation.
Folding as Relational Operation
To say that horizons fold is not to invoke spatial metaphor alone. Folding describes a relational operation:
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One horizon becomes partially internal to another.
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Constraints from different horizons interact, overlap, or interfere.
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New regions of possibility emerge at the intersections.
A fold does not collapse horizons into sameness. Instead, it produces zones of intensified constraint and generativity, where novel distinctions can stabilise.
Examples of Folding Across Domains
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A grammatical horizon
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A cultural horizon
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A historical horizon
When these fold together, new meanings become possible — metaphors, registers, or discursive forms that could not arise within any single horizon alone.
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A local interaction horizon
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A spacetime horizon
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A theoretical horizon that defines what counts as a phenomenon
When these horizons fold, phenomena such as phase transitions, symmetry breaking, or horizon effects emerge — not as violations, but as products of interacting constraints.
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A conceptual horizon
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A methodological horizon
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A meta-theoretical horizon
When these fold, the theory becomes capable of transforming itself, generating revisions, extensions, or entirely new perspectives.
Why Folding Matters for Possibility
Folding explains several otherwise puzzling features of emergence:
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Novelty without randomness: New possibilities arise not ex nihilo, but from structured intersections of constraints.
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Stability without rigidity: Emergent forms persist because folds stabilise distinctions across multiple horizons.
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Change without collapse: Horizons can transform without losing coherence, because folding redistributes constraints rather than destroying them.
Possibility evolves not by adding new horizons externally, but by reconfiguring the relations among existing ones.
Gödel Revisited
Gödel’s incompleteness results can now be reread relationally:
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A formal system defines a horizon of provability.
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Meta-mathematical reasoning introduces a broader horizon.
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When these horizons fold, statements emerge that are true relative to one horizon but undecidable within another.
Incompleteness is not a failure of formal systems; it is an inevitable consequence of horizon folding. Any sufficiently expressive system will generate folds between object-level and meta-level horizons, producing undecidable regions of possibility.
The Architecture of Recursive Possibility
We can now see the deeper structure:
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Horizons constrain actualisation.
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Actualisations reshape constraints.
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Horizons fold into other horizons.
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New regions of possibility emerge at the folds.
This architecture is recursive but not circular. Each fold changes the configuration of the field, ensuring that possibility evolves rather than repeats.
Conclusion
Horizons do not merely bound possibility; they interact, overlap, and fold, generating the layered structure through which novelty arises. Possibility evolves through these folds, not despite them.
In the next post, “Iterative Actualisation and Novelty”, we will examine how repeated actualisations within folded horizons generate genuinely new forms — distinctions that were not merely hidden, but previously unthinkable.
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