The same room. A slightly increased number of papers. Mr Blottisham is visibly confident—more so than before, which is never a good sign.
Blottisham:
I believe I have now understood subpotential.
Quillibrace:
I doubt it.
Blottisham (untroubled):
It is the underlying structure that stores the regularities of instantiation.
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham nods, as though this were expected.
Blottisham:
Very well, not stores. That was incautious. It is the structure that encodes the regularities.
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham:
Represents them?
Quillibrace:
No.
A pause.
Blottisham:
Summarises them?
Quillibrace:
Closer. Still wrong.
Elowen looks up from the papers.
Elowen:
You are still trying to locate the subpotential somewhere.
Blottisham:
Naturally. If it exists, it must be somewhere.
Quillibrace:
It does not exist in that way.
Blottisham sighs, though not yet defeated.
Blottisham:
Let me begin again. We have many instantiations. Some configurations recur more frequently than others. From this, we infer a distribution.
Quillibrace:
Yes.
Blottisham (carefully):
That distribution is the subpotential.
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham closes his eyes briefly.
Blottisham:
I was precise.
Quillibrace:
You were imprecise in a precise manner.
Elowen smiles faintly.
Elowen:
You have turned the subpotential into the distribution itself.
Blottisham:
And it is not?
Elowen:
It is the stabilisation of that distribution across instantiation histories.
Blottisham considers this.
Blottisham:
That sounds like a distinction without substance.
Quillibrace:
It is a distinction without substance. That is the point.
Blottisham looks momentarily suspicious.
Blottisham:
So the subpotential is not a thing, not a structure, not a distribution… what remains?
Quillibrace:
A pattern of constraint-consistent recurrence.
Blottisham brightens.
Blottisham:
Ah! Then it is an attractor.
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham:
But surely—
Quillibrace:
You are importing dynamical machinery.
Blottisham waves this aside.
Blottisham:
Let us not be overly delicate. There is clearly some region of possibility space toward which instantiations tend.
Quillibrace:
There is no such space.
Blottisham stares.
Blottisham:
We have just been discussing it.
Quillibrace:
We have been discussing inferred constraint geometries, not pre-existing spaces.
Elowen leans forward slightly.
Elowen:
You are treating the subpotential as if it existed before the instantiations, guiding them.
Blottisham:
Does it not?
Elowen:
No. It is inferred from them.
Blottisham frowns.
Blottisham:
But once inferred, it must constrain future instantiations.
Quillibrace:
No.
A longer pause.
Blottisham:
Then what is doing the constraining?
Quillibrace:
The instantiation.
Blottisham leans back, visibly exasperated.
Blottisham:
We have lost all explanatory power.
Quillibrace:
We have lost all unnecessary entities.
Elowen intervenes gently.
Elowen:
Think of it this way. You observe that certain configurations recur. You describe that recurrence as a distribution. When that distribution stabilises across many instantiations, you can rely on it to continue—provided you remain within constraint-consistent trajectories.
Blottisham:
Yes.
Elowen:
That stabilised reliability is what we are calling subpotential.
Blottisham narrows his eyes.
Blottisham:
So it is a kind of expectation.
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham:
A probability?
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham:
A tendency?
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham gestures in frustration.
Blottisham:
You will not allow any word that captures it.
Quillibrace:
I will not allow any word that replaces it.
A pause.
Blottisham:
Then let me attempt something more careful. The subpotential is not a structure behind instantiations, nor a distribution that exists independently of them. It is the stabilised pattern of recurrence inferred across instantiation histories, which supports constraint-consistent continuation.
Quillibrace:
Acceptable.
Blottisham nods, satisfied.
Blottisham:
And this pattern, once stabilised, influences future instantiations.
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham freezes.
Blottisham:
But you have just—
Quillibrace:
You have just added influence.
Elowen watches him carefully.
Elowen:
It does not influence future instantiations. It makes certain continuations viable and others not, within the same constraint conditions.
Blottisham:
That is influence.
Quillibrace:
It is not.
Blottisham exhales.
Blottisham:
Then what is the difference?
Quillibrace:
Influence implies a force acting across events.
Viability implies a condition of compatibility within them.
A quiet settles.
Blottisham:
So the subpotential does not act, does not guide, does not store, does not represent… it simply… stabilises.
Quillibrace:
Yes.
Blottisham:
Without existing as a thing.
Quillibrace:
Yes.
Blottisham sits back slowly.
Blottisham:
This is a most elusive category.
Quillibrace:
Only if one insists on grasping it.
Elowen smiles.
Elowen:
It is easier if you let it remain where it belongs.
Blottisham:
And where is that?
Elowen:
In the recurrence itself.
A pause.
Blottisham looks at the papers, as though they might now rearrange themselves into something more cooperative.
Quillibrace remains still.
Elowen continues to watch the structure rather than the words.
Blottisham (quietly):
I shall try not to store it anywhere.
Quillibrace:
You will fail.
End of Dialogue III
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