Nested Condensations: 3 Social Fields and Symbolic Condensations

In the previous post, we examined nested condensation in neural fields, showing how enduring patterns of activity condense into higher-order cognitive units. We now extend the same principles to social fields, exploring how recursive thickening and condensation shape collective symbolic structures.

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1. Enduring Social Patterns as Substrate

Social systems provide a persistent relational terrain:

• Norms, practices, and conventions form enduring relational fields, stabilised by repeated participation.

• These patterns are not fixed prescriptions, but structured potential: they bias the emergence of new interactions without determining them.

• Endurance ensures that condensation occurs within constraints, enabling the formation of coherent collective structures.

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2. Recursive Thickening in Social Fields

Social condensation proceeds through cycles analogous to neural thickening:

1. Variation: multiple interpretations, actions, and interactions occur in parallel.

2. Selection: recurrent practices and repeated social outcomes reinforce certain patterns.

3. Thickening: reinforced patterns cluster, stabilising norms, roles, and conventions.

Through repeated cycles, social clusters gain density, forming coherent semiotic units such as rituals, institutions, and shared practices.

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3. Condensation of Social Trajectories

Condensation in social fields occurs when:

• Related clusters of practice and meaning cohere into higher-order structures, e.g., legal systems, organisational frameworks, or cultural narratives.

• These higher-order units provide a substrate for further recursive articulation, including reinterpretation and innovation.

• Nested condensation emerges as clusters of clusters form complex symbolic networks, enabling coordination and collective knowledge.

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4. Meta-Social Organisation

Recursive condensation extends to meta-social layers:

• Multiple institutional or cultural clusters interact to form meta-clusters, such as federations, professional networks, or ideational frameworks.

• These meta-clusters influence which lower-level patterns persist, creating reflexive feedback loops across social strata.

• The process mirrors the meta-semiotic recursion seen in symbolic systems and neural fields, demonstrating the structural resonance of nested condensation across scales.

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5. Principles Across Domains

1. Persistence: enduring social patterns guide which interactions cluster.

2. Recursive Thickening: repeated engagement strengthens collective trajectories.

3. Nested Condensation: higher-order social units emerge from clusters of clusters.

4. Structural Resonance: mechanisms parallel those observed in neural and semiotic fields, though instantiated at a collective level.

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6. Looking Ahead

Social fields demonstrate how recursive condensation operates at the collective level, generating higher-order symbolic structures and supporting the evolution of shared meaning.

In the next post, we will examine conceptual fields, tracing how ideas and frameworks condense into theories and meta-symbols, completing the three-domain exploration of nested condensation.