Density and the Evolution of Semiotic Possibility: 4 Evolution as Collective Reweighting

So far, we have examined:

• Instantiation as a vertical cline — the narrowing of systemic potential into concrete texts.

• Individuation as a lateral cline — patterned density distributions across individuals.

• Development as density reconfiguration — the dynamic reshaping of an individual’s cline over time.

We now move from the individual to the collective.

1. Collective Evolution Defined

Collective evolution is the system-wide redistribution of potential driven by repeated actualisation across individuals. When many individuals repeatedly actualise certain subpotentials, the density of those regions thickens at the system level. Conversely, underused regions thin, becoming less likely to be selected in future instantiations.

This is not metaphorical. The semiotic system itself adapts its probability landscape according to actual usage patterns, producing a field of structured potential that is historically contingent yet patterned.

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2. Visualising Collective Reweighting

Consider three individuals navigating the same subpotentials:

Systemic potential (collective density)

█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █   ← heavily actualised, thickened regions

█ █ █                              ← moderately used

█                                         ← rarely actualised, thinning

Over time:

• Repeated actualisation → thickened collective density

• Neglected subpotentials → thinning

• Emergent patterns reflect both social convention and the cumulative history of individual development

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3. Key Relational Insights

1. Development feeds evolution: Individual reconfigurations of density create micro-patterns that, when aggregated, become system-wide density shifts.

2. History is structured potential: The semiotic field is always a record of past actualisations, not merely a set of abstract rules.

3. Innovation emerges naturally: Thinned regions of density are not failures; they are spaces of potential novelty. New patterns can crystallise where the field is underdetermined.

In this way, evolution is recursive: density changes at the collective level influence future individual development, which in turn reweights the system, creating a continuous, patterned interplay between individual and collective.

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4. Implications for Semiotic Systems

Understanding evolution as collective reweighting allows us to:

• Explain how linguistic forms, genres, or conventions stabilise or change over time.

• See tradition and innovation as emergent properties of density redistribution, not external impositions.

• Prepare the conceptual terrain for examining how novelty and sedimentation operate within historical fields, the focus of the next two posts.