Impossible Horizons: 5 Temporal Tangles and the Becoming of Possibility

Possibility is never static. Its contours are continuously reshaped by the interplay of construal, actualisation, and perspective. Nowhere is this more evident than in the temporal dimension: the relational weaving of past, present, and future that shapes what can be actualised at any given moment.

Time as Relational Field

Traditional views treat time as a linear progression: a sequence of events from past to future. Relational ontology reframes time as a field of co-constituted potentials, where past, present, and future are not fixed coordinates but active dimensions in the becoming of possibility.

Each actualisation is a cut into this field. It not only resolves certain potentials but also reshapes the horizon of remaining possibilities. In this sense, every “present” is both a product of prior construals and a generator of future potentials.

Temporal Interference and Paradox

Time introduces its own paradoxes. A potential that could be actualised in one sequence may be impossible in another. Multiple trajectories coexist in tension, creating temporal tangles: zones where potentialities overlap, conflict, or fold back on themselves.

These tangles are not errors; they are generative structures. By attending to them, we see how constraints, paradoxes, and horizons of possibility evolve across time. The relational field of possibility is thus non-linear, multi-stranded, and dynamically recursive.

The Role of Construal in Temporal Dynamics

Perspective is central to temporal tangles. The same sequence of events can appear differently depending on the cut through which it is construed. Some potentials hover at the edge of instantiation, visible only when temporal sequences are viewed relationally rather than linearly.

This highlights a crucial insight: the becoming of possibility is inseparable from the becoming of perspective. Time is not a container for possibilities; it is a medium through which possibilities unfold, interact, and transform.

Hovering Potentials Across Time

Temporal tangles give rise to hovering potentials—potentials that exist in relational superposition, neither fully actualised nor fully inaccessible. These potentials illustrate the subtle interplay of past constraints, present cuts, and future possibilities. They are reminders that actualisation is never a simple progression, but a negotiation across time, perspective, and relational structure.

Conclusion

By examining temporal tangles, we begin to see how the horizon of possibility is continuously reconfigured. Past instantiations shape present potentials, and present cuts reshape future potentials, in a dynamic recursive dance. Time, like possibility itself, is not a static backdrop—it is an active participant in the co-constitution of meaning.

The next post will turn to impossible worlds, exploring configurations of meaning that cannot be instantiated materially but exist fully as construals, revealing the creative power of conceptual actualisation.