So far, we have examined coordination across developmental, colonial, and kinetic systems without invoking meaning, intention, or representation. What has circulated through all of these fields is value — but not value as judgment, preference, or signification.
To understand how meaning later enters the picture, we must first be precise about how value flows without meaning.
1. What Value Is (Relationally)
In a relational frame, value is not a property and not an evaluation. It is a pattern of viability within a field of coordination.
Value shows up as:
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increased survival probability
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energy efficiency
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stability under perturbation
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capacity to persist, replicate, or expand
Crucially, value is field-dependent. What counts as value is always relative to:
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environmental constraints
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coordination structure
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temporal horizon
There is no value in isolation. Value only exists in circulation.
2. Biological Value: Circulation Without Signification
In biological systems, value flows continuously through coordination fields:
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In morphogenesis, value flows toward stable form: tissues that coordinate effectively persist.
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In eusocial colonies, value flows through task allocation, foraging efficiency, and defence coherence.
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In herds and flocks, value flows through motion coherence that reduces predation risk.
At no point does anything mean anything.
Signals function, but they do not signify. Gradients guide, but they do not represent. Pheromones trigger, but they do not communicate propositions.
Value circulates because coordination works.
3. Exchange, Not Accumulation
A key feature of value in non-symbolic systems is that it is exchanged, not stored.
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Energy is expended to gain efficiency.
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Risk is redistributed across the group.
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Labour is allocated to maintain collective viability.
Even when value appears to accumulate (e.g. stored food, increased population), this accumulation is always provisional — dependent on ongoing coordination.
This is why rigid hoarding often precedes collapse, even in biological systems.
4. Social Value Before Meaning
Human systems introduce complexity, but not discontinuity.
Before meaning enters explicitly, social systems already exchange value:
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labour
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resources
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attention
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time
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trust as reliability
These exchanges are still coordination-dependent. They rely on:
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role differentiation
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procedural uptake
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structural constraints
Meaning is not yet required. People can participate in value exchange without shared narratives, ideologies, or explicit interpretation.
What matters is whether the field can register contribution and redistribute capacity.
5. When Value Flows Break
Value-flow failure occurs when:
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coordination channels narrow
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uptake becomes asymmetric
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revisability collapses
This produces familiar pathologies:
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accumulation without circulation
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extraction without regeneration
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coordination costs exceeding returns
At this point, systems often attempt to repair value failure by introducing moral or symbolic explanation — but this comes after the failure, not before it.
6. Why Meaning Is Not Yet Involved
It is essential to hold the line here:
Value systems are not meaning systems.
They can:
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operate efficiently
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scale across populations
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persist over time
without any semiotic mediation.
Meaning becomes relevant only when:
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coordination requires symbolic negotiation
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value flows must be justified, legitimised, or contested
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revisability depends on intelligibility rather than mere coupling
7. Preparing the Ground for Meaning
By understanding value as relational flow, we avoid two common errors:
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reducing meaning to utility
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treating value as moral significance
Instead, we see that meaning arises when:
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value flows become misaligned
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coordination requires symbolic repair
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systems must reflect on their own functioning
Looking Ahead
We are now positioned to make the crucial transition.
The next post will examine how meaning overlays value fields — how semiotic systems intervene in coordination, sometimes enhancing it, sometimes distorting it, and sometimes breaking it entirely.
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