Readiness and the Shape of Relation: 2 Cuts and Construals: The Mechanics of Relation

How relational potential becomes phenomenon

From Potential to Actualisation

In relational ontology, a cut is the act that transforms structured potential into an actualised construal. Unlike classical distinctions between objects and properties, cuts do not reveal pre-existing things; they instantiate one of many possible relational configurations.

Every cut carries two key features:

1. Actualisation: Some possibilities are stabilised as real within the construal.

2. Differentiability Preservation: Remaining potential is retained in a form that can support further cuts — not all distinctions are eliminated.

Cuts are therefore not destructive. They are selective and generative, maintaining the horizon of relational potential.

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Construals: Navigating Horizons

A construal is the trajectory of cuts across a horizon of potential. It is the way in which relational space is navigated, structured, and made coherent.

Construals depend on two second-order properties of systems:

• Inclination: The encoded tendencies that bias which potentials are likely to be actualised.

  • In physics, this might correspond to formal constraints or symmetries.

  • In semiotics, this could be habitual patterns or symbolic conventions.

• Ability: The capacity of the system to instantiate potential successfully.

  • Collapse of ability produces over-closure: the horizon can no longer support further actualisations.

  • Systems may be inclined, but if ability is exhausted, further cuts fail or produce divergence.

Together, inclination and ability define readiness — the horizon-sensitive potential that determines what can still meaningfully emerge.

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Preserving Differentiability

One of the subtler points of relational mechanics is that cuts must preserve differentiability:

• Actualising a potential cannot arbitrarily eliminate other potentials.

• Preserving differentiability ensures the system retains relational room for further construals.

• When differentiability is lost (horizon exhaustion), the system experiences over-closure — a singularity in relational terms.

This makes singularities, collapse, and divergence intelligible as failures of readiness, not as metaphysical anomalies.

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Interplay of Inclination and Ability

Consider the dynamics:

System Property	Role in Construal	Failure Mode
Inclination	Guides which potentials are actualised first	Divergence if ability cannot meet predisposition
Ability	Determines whether actualisation succeeds	Horizon exhaustion, over-closure
Readiness	Combined relational capacity	Collapse, brittleness, loss of relational room

Cuts therefore act relationally, balancing the tendencies encoded in inclination with the constraints imposed by ability. A healthy system preserves readiness while making meaningful distinctions.

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Implications

1. Phenomena are neither predetermined nor random.
   They emerge from the interplay of relational potential, inclination, and ability.

2. Over-closure is a diagnosable state.
   It signals exhaustion of ability, not infinity or ontological failure.

3. Modelling must respect readiness.
   Predictive models should check inclination against available ability to avoid spurious extrapolation.

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Forward Gesture

Understanding the mechanics of cuts and construals allows us to:

• Trace the emergence of structure in physical, social, and symbolic systems.

• Diagnose where mathematical, physical, or conceptual models have over-closed their horizons.

• Begin to formalise relational capacity as a measurable, second-order property.

The next post will explore horizons, readiness, and relational capacity in depth, showing how they govern system behaviour across domains, and why exhaustion of relational room produces phenomena commonly misread as anomalies.