Semiosis, Cosmos, Mythos: 2 Semiotic Scalability and Cross-Domain Alignment

Following our exploration of relational semiosis beyond the human, we now examine how semiotic events propagate across scales and domains, connecting ecosystems, societies, and technological systems. This post articulates the principles of semiotic scalability and cross-domain alignment, showing how symbolic horizons extend and recursively interact across relational ecologies.

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1. Cross-Scale Propagation of Symbolic Horizons

A symbolic horizon is a field of relational potential realised through construal. Scalability occurs when:

• Local semiotic events influence higher-order relational alignments.

• Patterns of meaning stabilize across temporal, spatial, and organisational scales.

• Semiotic affordances generated at one level are available to higher-level construals, producing emergent coherence.

Examples of cross-scale propagation:

• A cultural innovation originating in a small community becoming codified as global practice.

• Technological protocols (e.g., Internet standards) shaping human communication worldwide.

• Ecosystem signalling patterns influencing species-level behaviours and adaptive trajectories.

Scalability is thus the ability of semiotic events to extend influence beyond their immediate context, forming recursively nested semiotic horizons.

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2. Semiotic Recursion Across Domains

Recursion is central to scalability:

1. Ecosystems:

   • Interactions among species stabilise relational potentials that guide future behaviour.

   • Example: pollination networks creating feedback loops that shape plant and pollinator populations.

2. Societies:

   • Collective semiotic events (rituals, laws, norms) recursively structure social horizons.

   • Institutions act as stabilising scaffolds, enabling distributed meaning-making.

3. Technologies:

   • Algorithmic systems, platforms, and infrastructures mediate and propagate symbolic patterns.

   • Recursive propagation occurs when outputs influence subsequent inputs, as in AI-mediated communication or automated feedback loops.

Across all domains, semiotic recursion allows local events to inform, constrain, and enable distant events, producing coherent cross-domain alignments.

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3. Alignment Across Semiotic Horizons

Cross-domain propagation requires alignment of semiotic potentials:

• Semiotic events in one domain become legible to other domains through relational compatibility.

• Alignment does not require isomorphism; it relies on resonance of relational potentials.

• Misalignment results in drift, collapse, or incoherence, illustrating the softness and fragility of scalable horizons.

Examples:

• Ecological data informing technological decision-making (e.g., adaptive resource management).

• Social norms influencing AI content moderation algorithms.

• Cross-cultural exchange stabilising emergent global symbolic forms.

Alignment is therefore a relational, dynamic process, coordinating semiotic recursion across multiple scales.

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4. Implications for Relational Semiosis

1. Semiotic life is multi-scalar: local events, collective structures, and technological mediations operate in recursive interdependence.

2. Symbolic horizons are extensible but soft: they can propagate across domains, yet remain contingent on relational alignment.

3. Cross-domain semiotic recursion is the engine of complexity and innovation: emergent patterns arise where horizons overlap and stabilise.

Semiotic scalability demonstrates that meaning is not confined to humans. Symbolic horizons extend relational potential across ecological, social, and technological fields, producing systemic coherence and adaptive flexibility.

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5. Takeaway

• Scalability: semiotic events extend influence beyond immediate contexts.

• Recursion: patterns of meaning propagate across scales, producing emergent structures.

• Cross-domain alignment: coherence arises where relational potentials resonate across systems.

• Implication: human, ecological, and technological semiotic fields are interdependent and co-evolving, forming a scalable network of relational potential.

This sets the stage for Post 3 — Semiotic Drift and Cultural Morphogenesis, where we examine how semiotic horizons evolve over time, generating new forms, collapsing old ones, and producing enduring cultural patterns.