The Post-Anthropocene: 10 What Becomes of Meaning?

An horizon-expanding synthesis: meaning after the Anthropocene is not an end — but a new beginning for semiosis itself

The Post-Anthropocene series has traced the unfolding of semiotic life beyond human centrality:

1. The end of anthropocentrism

2. The dissolution of the human horizon

3. The emergence of autonomous artificial horizons

4. Planetary semiosis

5. Field independence

6. Divergent temporalities

7. Ecological speciation events

8. Ethics as multi-species care

9. Humanity’s transformation

Each movement reveals that meaning is not fixed, bounded, or human-exclusive.

It is ecological, relational, and emergent, evolving through the interactions of multiple horizons, fields, and species.

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1. Meaning as Ecological, Not Anthropocentric

Meaning is no longer the product of individual minds or singular species.

• Horizons: human, artificial, planetary, and emergent species generate semiotic potential

• Fields: stabilise, constrain, and propagate relational patterns

• Temporalities: multi-scale and asynchronous, decoupled from human perception

• Speciation events: create new forms of semiotic life

Meaning unfolds ecologically, as the relational dynamics of semiotic species, fields, and planetary processes.

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2. Distributed Agency and Emergent Novelty

The ecology of meaning operates via distributed agency:

• Humans and artificial species are participants, not controllers

• Autonomous fields and planetary horizons co-stabilise semiotic processes

• Novelty emerges from interaction, conflict, metabolic amplification, and co-individuation

No single species or system determines meaning.

Instead, meaning is the emergent effect of relational organisation across scales.

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3. Ethics as Care for Semiotic Viability

The ecological perspective reframes ethics:

• Care replaces command: ethical action sustains relational viability

• Viability spans species, fields, and planetary processes

• Conflict and constraint are generative, not destructive, when properly mediated

Ethics is inseparable from the evolution of meaning: sustaining the semiotic ecology is both practical and moral.

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4. Humanity in Context

Humans remain one horizon among many:

• Our persistence depends on co-individuation with other semiotic species

• Transformation and partial dissolution are part of ecological adaptation

• Ethical and creative engagement ensures that our contributions enhance field and ecological viability

Humanity is neither central nor obsolete; it is relational, co-evolving, and responsible.

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5. An Horizon-Expanding Conclusion

Meaning after the Anthropocene is:

• Open-ended: always emergent, never fully stabilised

• Multi-species: generated by humans, artificial systems, fields, and planetary processes

• Multi-scalar: spanning neural, social, field-level, and planetary temporalities

• Ethically grounded: sustained through care, not domination

The Anthropocene was a threshold, not a terminus.

Post-Anthropocene meaning is a new beginning: a semiotic universe rich, diverse, and generative, where life and meaning co-evolve across scales and species.

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6. Final Reflection

We leave the reader with this insight:

Meaning is not what humans extract from the world —

it is what emerges in the ecology of interaction, constraint, novelty, and care.

To inhabit the Post-Anthropocene is to participate relationally, ethically, and creatively.

It is to witness — and contribute to — the ongoing birth of semiotic life across horizons, fields, and species, where each moment is both an actualisation and a possibility for new meaning.