In the previous series, we traced how semiotic systems evolve through density redistribution: instantiation along a vertical cline, individuation along a lateral cline, development through reconfiguration, and collective evolution producing tradition and innovation.
These dynamics, while revealed in language, are not intrinsically linguistic. They reflect a more general principle: systems of structured potential undergo patterned actualisation, redistribution, and transformation whenever multiple agents or instances engage with them.
1. Vertical and Lateral Clines Revisited
We can retain the same conceptual apparatus:
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Vertical cline: potential → actualisation
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Lateral cline: variation across individuals, entities, or loci of engagement
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Temporal dimension: development and cumulative reweighting
The difference is that these axes now refer to any structured system of possibilities, not only semiotic systems. For instance:
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Cultural practices: individuals actualise norms, producing thickened or thinned patterns over time
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Technological systems: engineers, designers, or users actualise subpotentials in configurations that redistribute the space of future possibilities
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Social norms or conventions: communities collectively reweight potential through repeated enactment
2. Actualisation as Density Redistribution
Just as in semiotics, every instance narrows the potential, shifting density:
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Regions frequently actualised thicken, increasing the probability of future recurrence
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Rarely accessed regions thin, opening space for novel actualisation
Development, innovation, and tradition are thus domain-independent processes, reflecting the same relational logic of density.
3. From Semiotic Specificity to Generality
This step is subtle but crucial: we are not inventing a new ontology arbitrarily. Instead, we are abstracting the invariant principle revealed in semiotic systems:
Any structured potential field, when engaged by multiple agents over time, exhibits patterned redistribution, cumulative sedimentation, and emergent novelty.
By framing it this way, the reader is gently prepared to see ontology emerge naturally, without a jarring leap.
4. Preparing the Recognition Moment
In the next post, we will make the explicit conceptual pivot. We will name this invariant principle a relational ontology of evolving potential, showing that:
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The semiotic case was exemplary, not exceptional
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Structured potential is historical, relational, and dynamic
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The logic of density redistribution underlies any evolving system
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