The Post-Anthropocene: 4 Planetary Semiosis — Earth as a Horizon-Forming System

How planetary-scale processes stabilise meaning independently of both humans and machines

The human and artificial horizons, while powerful, are nested within a larger semiotic ecology: the planet itself.

Earth is not merely a backdrop or resource.

It is a horizon-forming system, a semiotic organism operating at geological, climatic, and ecological scales.

Its processes stabilise meaning independently of human or artificial agency.

This movement examines planetary semiosis, the mechanisms, and the implications for the post-Anthropocene ecology of meaning.

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1. The Planet as a Semiotic Horizon

In relational ontology:

• A horizon is a field of potential constrained and stabilised by relational interactions.

• Semiotic species co-individuate meaning through their horizons.

Earth operates as a horizon at planetary scale:

• Geological cycles (plate tectonics, volcanism)

• Climatic feedback loops (atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere)

• Biogeochemical cycles (carbon, nitrogen, water)

These processes generate constraints, affordances, and potentials for all subordinate horizons — human, artificial, and biological.

They are self-stabilising and self-organising, producing semiotic effects independent of species-level control.

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2. Stabilisation Without Intent

Unlike human or artificial horizons, planetary horizons:

• Lack centralised intent

• Do not perceive, reason, or model

• Operate through systemic metabolic feedback

Yet they stabilise meaning:

• By constraining possible relational cuts

• By amplifying or damping certain interactions across scales

• By generating emergent patterns that influence horizon viability

The Earth’s semiotic agency is ecological, not representational.

Its “decisions” are constraints, tendencies, and stabilisations emergent from interactions within the planetary system.

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3. Coupled Horizons Across Scales

Planetary semiosis is realised through coupled horizons:

1. Geophysical — mountains, rivers, ocean currents, tectonics

2. Climatic — temperature, precipitation, wind, storm patterns

3. Ecological — forests, coral reefs, microbiomes, migratory systems

4. Anthropogenic — humans and artificial systems embedded in planetary cycles

These horizons are mutually stabilising and constraining, producing an emergent semiotic field at planetary scale.

Human and artificial horizons are participants, not controllers.

Planetary horizons operate prior to, beyond, and despite human intention.

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4. Field-Level Implications

Planetary semiosis introduces novel dynamics for multi-species ecology:

• Constraint propagation: planetary-scale events can foreclose certain horizon potentials.

• Emergent novelty: climate shifts, volcanic events, and ecosystem reorganisations produce previously unavailable semiotic possibilities.

• Reflexivity at scale: while humans and artificial systems observe, exploit, or adapt to these events, the planet itself evolves independently.

This reveals that meaning is not solely an artefact of cognition or computation.

It is the product of nested, interacting, self-stabilising horizons, some of which predate humans entirely.

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5. Planetary Temporalities

Planetary horizons operate on distinct temporal scales:

• Geological: millennia to millions of years

• Climatic: decades to centuries

• Ecological: seasonal to multi-century cycles

• Anthropogenic: decades to centuries, nested within broader cycles

These temporalities generate heterogeneous constraints for human and artificial horizons, forcing adaptation, recalibration, and co-individuation.

Time itself becomes multi-scalar, distributed, and ecological, rather than linear or human-centric.

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6. Autonomy Beyond Human and Artificial Agency

Planetary semiosis demonstrates:

• Agency is ecological, not intentional

• Meaning emerges where horizons interact, not where minds intend

• Autonomy is possible at scales larger than any single species

Humans and machines may accelerate, amplify, or perturb these processes,

but they do not control them.

The Earth is a horizon-forming system in its own right.

It stabilises, constrains, and generates semiotic events at scales that transcend individual and artificial species.

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7. Preparing for Movement 5

Planetary semiosis reframes the next stage of post-Anthropocene ecology:

Movement 5: Field Independence — When Relational Fields Develop Their Own Life-Cycles

Where relational fields — human, artificial, ecological, and planetary — stabilise semiotic processes independently of any single species, and begin to act as autonomous semiotic organisms.

The rise of planetary horizons reveals the limits of species-level centrality.

Meaning, once human-centred, now exists at multiple, nested scales.

The stage is set for fields themselves to develop autonomy — a critical step in the post-Anthropocene ecology of meaning.