The same room. The same arrangement. Mr Blottisham appears in particularly high spirits, as though at last the systems may be made to cooperate sensibly.
Blottisham:
I believe we now arrive at the point where everything comes together.
Quillibrace:
I had hoped we might avoid that.
Blottisham ignores this.
Blottisham:
Co-actualisation is clearly the process by which the different systems interact in order to produce a unified event.
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham smiles, almost indulgently.
Blottisham:
You object to “interact,” I suppose.
Quillibrace:
Among other things.
Blottisham:
Very well. They do not interact—they coordinate.
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham:
They align.
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham:
They synchronise.
Quillibrace:
No.
A pause.
Blottisham:
You will not permit even the mildest form of cooperation.
Quillibrace:
I will not permit you to invent processes between systems.
Blottisham leans forward.
Blottisham:
But if the systems are orthogonal, and yet their selections must be compatible, something must ensure that compatibility.
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham blinks.
Blottisham:
Then how is compatibility achieved?
Quillibrace:
It is not achieved.
A longer pause.
Blottisham:
Then it simply… happens?
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham exhales.
Blottisham:
This is becoming increasingly mysterious.
Elowen:
You are still treating co-actualisation as if it were a process that brings systems together.
Blottisham:
Is it not?
Elowen:
No. It is the condition under which their selections are jointly viable.
Blottisham frowns.
Blottisham:
That sounds like coordination.
Quillibrace:
It is not.
Blottisham taps the table.
Blottisham:
Let me try a different approach. Each system produces a selection. These selections must then be combined into a single outcome.
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham looks faintly pained.
Blottisham:
You will not allow even combination?
Quillibrace:
There is nothing to combine.
Blottisham pauses.
Blottisham:
But we end up with a single event.
Quillibrace:
We have a single instantiation.
Blottisham:
Which is the same thing.
Quillibrace:
It is not.
Elowen speaks gently.
Elowen:
You are imagining separate outputs that must be brought together. But there are no separate outputs.
Blottisham:
Then what is there?
Elowen:
A single co-actualised selection across multiple constraint spaces.
Blottisham considers this.
Blottisham:
So the systems do not produce their own outcomes independently?
Quillibrace:
Correct.
Blottisham:
They do not then combine those outcomes?
Quillibrace:
Correct.
Blottisham leans back, thinking.
Blottisham:
Then co-actualisation is not a process at all.
Quillibrace:
Correct.
A pause.
Blottisham:
But it must describe something.
Quillibrace:
It describes the simultaneity of constraint-consistent selection across orthogonal systems.
Blottisham nods slowly.
Blottisham:
So there is one selection, viewed through multiple constraint geometries.
Quillibrace:
Acceptable.
Blottisham brightens.
Blottisham:
Ah! Then the systems are simply different perspectives on the same underlying event.
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham sighs.
Blottisham:
You object to “perspectives.”
Quillibrace:
I object to “same underlying event.”
Elowen intervenes.
Elowen:
It is not that there is one event first, which is then described differently. The co-actualisation is the event.
Blottisham pauses.
Blottisham:
So there is no underlying event apart from the co-actualisation?
Quillibrace:
Correct.
Blottisham taps his fingers thoughtfully.
Blottisham:
Let me attempt a formulation. Co-actualisation is not interaction, not coordination, not combination. It is the simultaneous resolution of constraint-consistent selections across orthogonal systems, such that no contradiction arises.
Quillibrace:
Acceptable.
Blottisham nods, pleased.
Blottisham:
And this produces the event.
Quillibrace:
No.
Blottisham freezes.
Blottisham:
But you have just—
Quillibrace:
You have just reintroduced production.
A pause.
Blottisham:
Then co-actualisation does not produce the event.
Quillibrace:
It is the event.
Blottisham sits back slowly.
Blottisham:
That is a difficult distinction.
Quillibrace:
Only if one insists on processes.
Elowen smiles faintly.
Elowen:
You keep trying to place something before the event—systems, selections, mechanisms. But nothing comes before it.
Blottisham looks at the table, then back up.
Blottisham:
So co-actualisation is not something that happens to systems, nor something they do. It is the condition under which their constraint-consistent selections are simultaneously realised as a single instantiation.
Quillibrace:
Acceptable.
A quiet settles.
Blottisham (after a moment):
I must admit, it is rather elegant.
Quillibrace:
It is rather strict.
Elowen glances between them.
Elowen:
And very easy to turn into a mechanism, if one is not careful.
Blottisham smiles.
Blottisham:
I shall be extremely careful.
Quillibrace:
You will not.
End of Dialogue VI
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