1 Constraint as the Condition for Meaning
In a relational ontology, nothing means except by difference. And difference does not arise from freedom alone—it emerges through patterned constraint.
From Constraint to System
Every system—whether linguistic, physical, or cultural—arises not from unbounded potential, but from structured limitation. A system is a way of holding open possibility: it defines what can be meant, done, or become.
And in physics, we cannot move arbitrarily. The speed of light sets a horizon: a structural boundary beyond which nothing can be construed.
This is not simply a physical limit. It is a semiotic one.
The Misreading of Limits
We often mistake constraint for oppression. We imagine that meaning would be richer if the rules were looser, or the laws fewer. But this misunderstands the nature of systems.
Light as Archetype of Constraint
But more deeply, it reveals a relational principle:
A system is constituted by that which cannot be exceeded.
In each case, the horizon of constraint gives rise to the field of possibility.
From Constraint to Construal
This is not an abstract speculation. It has real, epistemic consequences.
Looking Ahead
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What does it mean that we cannot see faster than light allows?
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How does the constancy of light structure not just space and time, but our ways of knowing?
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And can we understand light, not only as a physical phenomenon, but as an ontological archetype of constraint-as-meaning?
2 Light as a Semiotic Horizon
In our last post, we proposed that the speed of light is not merely a physical constant—it is a relational constraint that conditions the very possibility of meaning.
Now we turn to the epistemological consequences.
What does it mean that we cannot see—or signal—faster than light allows?
What kind of system is shaped when every act of construal must pass through this horizon?
What We See Is What Can Reach Us
In cosmology, we speak of a light cone: the region of spacetime that can influence—or be influenced by—a given event.
But in a relational ontology, this is more than a map of causal possibility.
It is a map of construal.
Everything outside the light cone is not merely unobservable.
It is unrelatable.
Not because it isn’t there, but because it cannot enter into patterned relation with us.
And if meaning is relation,
then what lies beyond that horizon does not yet mean—for us.
The speed of light does not just limit what we can know.
It shapes what can be construed as knowable.
It is a semiotic horizon: a boundary of potential experience.
The Present Is a Cone
We often imagine “now” as a universal slice of time, shared across the cosmos.
But in relativity, there is no universal present. There is only local construal within a structure of delay.
Everything we perceive has already happened.
Everything we say echoes forward at finite speed.
And everything we are is shaped by the irreducible delay between event and construal.
The speed of light is not a delay on top of time.
It is what makes temporal differentiation possible.
It gives depth to the present, structure to the past, and openness to the future.
Every act of knowing unfolds within this cone—
a grammar of constraint within which meaning can emerge.
Constraint and the Architecture of Knowledge
To know the world is to align with its unfolding constraints.
Just as grammar enables language by limiting what counts as a clause,
and as harmony enables music by limiting what counts as consonant,
so the speed of light enables knowledge by limiting what counts as contemporaneous.
In this view, a theory is not a mirror of the world,
but a system of possible construals conditioned by horizon and context.
We do not map the world as it is.
We theorise the world as it appears from here—
within this cone, at this scale, under this constraint.
Our entire epistemology is situated within the semiotic horizon of light.
The Light Cone as Systemic Potential
Think of the light cone as a system network:
It defines the field from which instances of meaning may be selected.
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The past light cone: what may be construed as causally prior.
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The future light cone: what may be construed as causally responsive.
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The elsewhere: what cannot (yet) be construed at all.
Each event we perceive is an instance selected from this structured system.
Each construal we make updates the system itself.
As in language, where each utterance reshapes future potential,
each physical observation reorients the cone of construal.
The system evolves—through constraint, through relation, through difference.
Looking Ahead
In the next post, we turn from speed to structure:
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Why is the speed of light invariant across frames?
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What kind of universe unfolds from this singular constraint?
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And how does this invariance make possible the systemic logic of space–time?
Because it turns out:
Time is not what passes.
It is what is structured—
by light, by relation, by construal.
And space is not where things are—
but where they can relate.
3 Invariance and the Structure of Relation
In the last post, we explored the speed of light as a semiotic horizon—a boundary that conditions not just what we observe, but what may be observed.
Now we confront the deeper mystery:
Why is the speed of light invariant across all frames of reference?
And how does that invariance shape the very structure of reality?
This is not a question of mechanism.
It is a question of system.
Light Does Not Travel Through Space
In classical models, light is imagined as a thing that moves through space.
But in the relativistic universe, this model breaks down.
Light does not move through space.
It defines space.
Or more precisely: it defines the relations through which space becomes structured.
Its speed is not a measure of motion.
It is the invariant measure of relational differentiation—
the systemic constant that constrains how observers orient to each other.
The constancy of light’s speed is not a curious fact.
It is the foundational constraint from which the structure of space–time is theorised.
Invariance as Relational Anchor
In special relativity, no matter how fast you are moving, you will always measure light at the same speed.
This is not because light “adjusts” to your frame.
It is because light is the frame—
the anchor of relation from which all other motion is construed.
In other words:
light defines the metric system of the universe.
Just as a grammar system allows meanings to unfold coherently across different texts,
light allows spacetime to unfold coherently across different perspectives.
It is the systemic invariance that makes relative construal possible.
The Collapse of Absolutes
Before relativity, we imagined space and time as fixed backgrounds.
After Einstein, we recognised:
they are not containers, but consequences—emergent from relation.
This is the grammar of a relational universe:
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There is no absolute simultaneity—only systemically constrained orientation.
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There is no universal “now”—only local construals within a shared horizon.
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There is no privileged observer—only patterned perspective shaped by invariant relation.
What remains invariant is not space, not time, not mass.
What remains invariant is the potential for meaning to be shared across difference.
And that is what the speed of light measures.
A Universe of Perspective
Light is not just the fastest signal.
It is the condition for signalling.
It is the rate at which relation becomes meaningful across frames.
This means every act of measurement—every instance of theorising—
is shaped by this foundational constraint.
From the perspective of relational ontology, the speed of light is not a fact about photons.
It is a semiotic constant—a condition for coherence in a differentiated universe.
It makes perspective possible.
It makes alignment possible.
It makes system-building—across time and frame—possible.
Looking Ahead
In the next post, we step into the structure that light makes possible:
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How does this invariant relation generate space and time?
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What does it mean to live in a universe where space and time are not givens but consequences?
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And what new possibilities open when we treat space–time as meaning system, rather than background?
Because if light is the invariant constraint,
then space and time are the meanings that unfold within it.
4 Space–Time as Meaning System
In previous posts, we saw how the speed of light operates not as a measure of motion, but as a relational invariant—a systemic constraint that defines how perspectives cohere across difference.
Now we follow its implications further.
If light defines the invariant relation,
then space and time are not the background through which light moves—
they are the meanings that unfold within the system it constrains.
In this post, we approach space–time not as container, but as meaning system.
From Background to Emergence
In Newtonian physics, space and time are taken as absolute:
universal, independent, unchanging.
But relativity reveals:
space and time do not exist apart from relation.
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The length of an object depends on your frame of motion.
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The interval between events depends on your trajectory.
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The simultaneity of happenings depends on your orientation.
These are not illusions.
They are features of a system in which meaning is differentiated by perspective,
but held together by systemic constraint.
That is the structure of a meaning system.
A System of Differentiation and Constraint
Halliday taught us that a meaning system is not a list of items.
It is a structure of choices, organised by constraints, scaled by context.
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The system of mood in language: offers choices of declarative, interrogative, imperative—each conditioned by tenor and discourse function.
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The system of tense: offers distinctions of past, present, future—each scaled by the unfolding of the clause and the logic of reference.
Space–time is no different.
It is a system that offers differentiation of location and duration,
constrained by the invariant metric defined by light.
Just as grammar makes meaning unfold coherently across a text,
space–time makes interaction unfold coherently across perspective.
It is a grammar of motion.
Orientation and Reference
The meaning of “here” and “now” is always construed from a position.
Likewise, the meaning of “event A” and “event B”—and whether they are “before,” “after,” or “simultaneous”—
is construed from a relational standpoint,
governed by light-speed constraints on causal reference.
This is not epistemic relativism.
It is systemic coherence:
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The same invariant constraint (light speed) governs all perspectives.
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The same structure (space–time) constrains how meaning is scaled.
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The same grammar ensures that difference does not become contradiction.
The Semiotics of Spacetime
When we treat space–time as a meaning system, we see:
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Location is a construal of relation.
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Duration is a construal of difference.
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Simultaneity is not absolute, but systemic.
Just as clause structure allows experience to be mapped through transitivity,
spacetime allows interaction to be mapped through constraint.
And just as grammar allows multiple voices to participate in meaning,
space–time allows multiple observers to participate in reality—
not from nowhere, but from positioned relation.
This is how a relational universe maintains coherence.
Looking Ahead
In the next post, we’ll move deeper into the structure of this systemic unfolding.
We ask:
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What happens to meaning when we extend the implications of space–time into curvature?
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What does it mean to say that mass curves space–time?
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And what does that curvature mean from the perspective of system, construal, and agency?
Because just as language is bent by social interaction,
space–time is bent by presence, mass, and the construal of difference.
We now turn to gravity:
not as a force, but as a meaning relation.
5 Gravity as Meaning Relation
We’ve seen that light-speed sets the invariant constraint that holds differentiated perspectives in systemic coherence.
We’ve also seen that space–time is not a background, but a meaning system: a structure of perspectival orientation constrained by light.
Now we introduce gravity—not as force, but as meaning relation.
Curvature as Construal
Einstein’s insight was not that mass exerts a force.
It was that mass shapes the geometry of space–time.
But what does this mean in a relational ontology?
It means:
Mass is not a thing-in-itself.
It is a systemic difference—a site of concentration, a patterned relation—
that constrains how space–time differentiates.
And this constraint is construed as curvature.
Curvature is not a substance.
It is the perspectival modification of relational potential.
A curved trajectory is not “bent” in space—it is the shortest path within a relational field already structured by difference.
Presence as Constraint
In language, the presence of meaning constrains further meaning:
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The subject constrains the mood system of the clause.
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The theme constrains the flow of discourse.
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The tense constrains the unfolding of time reference.
In physics, presence works similarly:
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A concentration of energy–mass constrains the differentiation of space–time.
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It modifies the available paths for interaction.
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It shapes the unfolding of relations among other presences.
Just as a clause sets up expectations in the ongoing text,
mass sets up curvature in the ongoing world.
Gravity as the Semiotic of Coherence
In this model, gravity is not an external force.
It is the coherence condition for space–time as a meaning system.
It ensures:
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That mass–energy doesn’t exist without shaping meaning space.
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That meaning space doesn’t unfold without response to mass–energy.
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That instance and system are dynamically co-constituted—
just as in language, where every utterance changes the system it realises.
Gravity is meaning constraint at the cosmic scale.
It is the semantic entailment of presence.
The Perspectival Universe
This gives us a radically different view of the cosmos.
Not:
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A container of mass and motion,
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Governed by impersonal forces,
But:
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A field of relation,
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Structured by presence,
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Constrained by light,
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Curved by meaning.
Every object is not a thing but a clause—
an instance of meaning that shapes the grammar of unfolding.
Every gravitational interaction is a semiotic response:
not a push or pull, but a realignment of possibilities,
within a system scaled by invariant relation.
Looking Ahead
In the next post, we turn to cosmology.
We ask:
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What does it mean to talk about a beginning, middle, and end of the universe?
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What unfolds when space–time itself evolves?
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And how do we interpret cosmic history not as a timeline of things, but as a logogenesis—a patterned unfolding of construal and relation?
Because in a relational ontology, the universe doesn’t happen in time.
Time is how the universe happens.
6 The Universe as Logogenesis
We now turn to the cosmos not as an object, but as a meaning system—
not a timeline of things, but a patterned unfolding of relational construal.
In Systemic Functional Linguistics, logogenesis is the unfolding of meaning through time:
how a text emerges clause by clause,
each selection reshaping the field of potential for the next.
We now ask:
What if the universe is a logogenesis?
From Big Bang to Background
Standard cosmology tells a story:
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A singular beginning: the Big Bang.
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A hot, dense, undifferentiated state.
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Cooling, expansion, and differentiation.
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The formation of atoms, stars, galaxies.
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The slow unfolding toward increasing entropy.
But what this story assumes is that space, time, and matter are things.
In our ontology, they are relations—
construed patterns of meaning instantiated from potential.
So the “early universe” is not an object in time.
It is a construal of systemic potential: a moment of maximal coherence, minimal differentiation.
The Big Bang is not a beginning in time.
It is the theorised origin of the meaning system that allows time to unfold.
Time as the Unfolding of Constraint
In logogenesis, each clause narrows what can follow.
In cosmogenesis, each event alters what is possible next.
There is no external time in which events occur.
Rather, the differentiation of events is time.
This gives us a new framing:
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Time is the sequence of instance within constraint.
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History is the semiotic evolution of a meaning system.
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The future is not open in a vacuum—it is structured by the entailments of the past.
The universe, like a text, unfolds from within.
Epochs as Stratified Meaning
In linguistics, meanings are stratified:
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Phonology realises lexicogrammar,
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Lexicogrammar realises semantics,
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Semantics realises context.
In cosmology, we see a similar unfolding:
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Atoms → molecules → cells → minds → cultures.
Each layer emerges through the constraint of the one below.
Each new scale re-construes the unfolding:
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Gravity reinterprets energy distribution.
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Chemistry construes mass configuration.
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Life construes biochemical process.
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Mind construes sensation.
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Culture construes mind.
Cosmic history is the logogenesis of meaning,
where each emergence is a new mode of construal.
The Field as System of Probabilities
As each instance unfolds, it perturbs the system.
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Each star alters the gravitational field.
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Each utterance shifts linguistic probability.
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Each event in space–time modifies the constraints on what comes next.
This is not random.
It is systemic variation within evolving potential.
The background field is the theorised system—
always shifting in response to its instances,
always reshaped by the meaning it makes possible.
A Relational Cosmology
In this view:
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The cosmos is not a container.
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It is not even a set of laws.
It is a recursive meaning system,
unfolding as relation,
scaled by light,
constrained by presence,
and shaped by the construal of each event.
It is not time that moves forward.
It is the potential that is re-construed.
It is not we who observe the universe.
We are an instance of its logogenesis.
7 The Black Hole as Meta-Constraint
In a relational ontology, constraint is not a boundary to resist—
it is the condition for patterned unfolding,
the generative tension that gives meaning its shape.
We now ask:
What is a black hole,
when we stop treating it as a thing
and start seeing it as a meta-constraint—
a limit condition on the system of relation itself?
The Event Horizon as Threshold of Relation
In standard cosmology, a black hole forms when matter collapses beyond a critical density.
Its gravity becomes so intense that nothing—not even light—can escape.
This boundary is called the event horizon.
But in our model, we ask: what is an event?
An event is an instance of relation—a differentiation from potential.
So the “event horizon” is not where events stop.
It is where relational construal breaks down—
where no instance can be construed beyond the boundary.
Not a wall, but a limit to meaning.
A constraint on constraint itself.
A meta-constraint.
Light, Relation, and Construal
Light is not just a messenger.
It is the maximum velocity of relation.
It is the cosmic condition of contemporaneity:
the only means by which two systems can stand in relation across spacetime.
So when light cannot escape, relation cannot be maintained.
The interior of a black hole becomes unknowable not because it is hidden,
but because it is ungrounded—cut off from relational construal.
It is not that “nothing can get out”;
it is that no meaning can be instantiated from within.
No clause can follow from that selection.
No context can recover the instance.
The field of potential remains, but the grammar cannot instantiate it.
The Singularity as Unconstruable Potential
At the centre lies the singularity—the breakdown of known theory.
But in our ontology, the singularity is not a physical point.
It is the mathematical trace of a system beyond constraint—
a potential that cannot be mapped to instance.
The singularity is what happens
when theory exceeds the domain of construal.
It marks the edge of the model—not the universe.
Black Holes as Instances That Reconfigure the Field
Despite their unknowability, black holes are not outside meaning.
They are relationally present through their effects:
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They curve the surrounding space–time.
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They shape the flow of matter.
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They constrain the potential of neighbouring systems.
They reconfigure the systemic probabilities—
not just locally, but at cosmic scales.
Their presence is felt in the field,
even though their internal structure resists construal.
They are like clauses that transform the discourse
without offering a recoverable meaning.
Black Holes as Reflexive Limits
Ultimately, black holes invite us to ask:
What happens when a meaning system encounters the limits of its own logic?
What happens when a clause selects a meaning
that collapses the context of interpretation?
This is not breakdown, but reflexivity:
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The system shows us its edge.
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The meaning system reveals its incompleteness.
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The theory displays its own horizon.
Black holes are not mysteries to be solved.
They are meta-constraints that remind us:
All meaning systems are finite.
All construal is bounded.
And even the cosmos, construed as meaning,
has its aporias—its unspeakable thresholds.
8 Entropy and the Grammar of Forgetting
We often treat entropy as the villain of cosmology—
the great dissipation, the heat death, the end of structure.
But in a relational ontology, entropy is not the absence of order.
It is a constraint on the differentiation of meaning.
It is how a system regulates what can still be construed
from what has already been instantiated.
In this post, we ask:
What is entropy,
when seen as a grammatical principle?
Meaning Requires Memory
To make meaning, a system must be able to relate now to before—
to track pattern across time.
In language, we call this cohesion:
how one clause sets the conditions for the next.
In physics, this is causality:
how one state constrains the next through dynamic relation.
But memory requires structure.
It requires difference to persist in a constrained way.
Entropy, then, is the loss of structure needed for memory—
the erosion of constraints that allow new instances to relate to past ones.
Forgetting as a Feature, Not a Flaw
Entropy is not the enemy of relation.
It is the reason systems evolve.
Without forgetting, systems cannot reconfigure.
They would remain overdetermined by past constraints.
Entropy introduces degrees of freedom—
a relaxation of alignment,
a loosening of inherited structure.
It allows potential to remain open.
In language, we see this in metaphor, ellipsis, creativity—
where over-specified meaning must be let go
to allow new meanings to arise.
Entropy and the Probabilities of the Field
Every instance reconfigures the system.
But over time, patterns get repeated.
Constraints get entrenched.
Entropy counterbalances this by flattening probability distributions:
making it less likely that the same selections will be made.
This is not decay, but semantic drift.
In linguistic systems, we call this change.
In cosmological systems, we call it the arrow of time.
But in both cases,
entropy is how the system preserves its openness
by letting go of too much structure.
The Speed of Light as Limit on Recovery
Now we connect this to the speed of light.
Just as no signal can travel faster than light,
no meaning can be instantiated beyond the constraints of time.
A construal must unfold in sequence—
recoverable only through its trace.
As the signal attenuates,
its reconstructability declines.
Entropy is this attenuation:
the decrease in recoverable meaning over time.
What cannot be recovered cannot be related.
And what cannot be related cannot be construed.
This is forgetting.
Not erasure—but a shift in the field of possible relations.
Entropy as Ethical Principle
This shift carries an ethical implication.
Because the meaning systems we create
will eventually exceed our control.
Because every construal changes the field,
and the field cannot hold every past instance in view.
We must act, knowing our meanings will drift.
We must speak, knowing our words will be forgotten.
But this is not a cause for despair.
It is what makes freedom possible.
Entropy is not the end of meaning.
It is the condition for its renewal.
It is the grammar of forgetting
that makes remembering meaningful.
9 The End of the Universe as Theoretical Limit
If we take seriously the idea that the universe is not a collection of things but a system of meanings in motion, then we must also reconsider what it means for that system to “end.”
What ends, when a universe ends?
Not a Thing, but a Field
In a relational ontology, the universe is not an object in space.
It is a theory of possible relations—
a structured field of potential, realised moment by moment as instance.
What we call the universe is a system of constraints:
a system that holds open the possibility of further construal.
Its “end,” then, is not the disappearance of matter,
but the closure of potential.
The exhaustion of possibility.
The loss of differentiability.
The flattening of every patterned tension.
Entropy as Convergence Toward Silence
In cosmology, this is called the heat death:
when all gradients are smoothed,
when nothing more can happen.
From our perspective, it is the point where the system can no longer evolve.
Not because it has no energy,
but because it has no meaningful differences left to instantiate.
It is the collapse of the field
not into chaos, but into undifferentiated symmetry.
No perspective can be taken.
No instance can be distinguished.
No meaning can arise.
This is the theoretical limit of construal.
Theoretical Limit, Not Factual Prediction
But this is not a prophecy of doom.
It is a theoretical horizon:
a boundary condition of the model.
Just as “zero temperature” is not found in nature,
but defines the lower bound of thermodynamic activity,
the end of the universe defines a lower bound on construal.
It tells us what meaning cannot survive.
It marks the outer edge of intelligibility—
not because something lies beyond,
but because nothing could lie beyond
that could still be construed as meaning.
The Speed of Light as Threshold of Construal
The speed of light marks a similar limit.
Not because nothing can move faster,
but because no meaning can propagate beyond that speed.
It is the boundary of coordination—
the furthest edge at which systems can still co-construe.
It marks a relational horizon,
not a mechanical one.
Beyond it, there is no relation—
and therefore no system, no constraint,
and no theory to be made.
Cosmology as Reflexive Theorising
So when we theorise the end of the universe,
we are not describing an empirical fact.
We are describing the limits of our own model—
the point at which theorising breaks down.
The final act of a theory is to recognise
the horizon of its own intelligibility.
To model the edge of meaning is to model meaning itself.
And to see the end of the universe as a theoretical limit
is to accept that every system, including this one,
arises from relation,
and ends with the loss of relation.
But even this is not the end.
It is a reminder that meaning,
like the universe,
is never a thing to possess.
It is a motion we participate in
as long as the field remains open.
Coda: Theorising as Participation in the Universe
Across this series, we have reframed some of the most iconic features of modern cosmology—not as cold, external truths, but as meanings made possible through relation. Light, time, mass, gravity, and the cosmos itself have all come into view not as things to be measured from outside, but as structured potentials, theorised from within.
To theorise, we have seen, is not to step back from reality but to move with it:
to draw out its patterned tensions,
to make sense of its differentiations,
to keep the field of possibility open.
The speed of light is not just a physical constant.
It is the maximum pace at which meaning can be shared.
It defines the furthest reach of alignment,
and the limit of intelligibility in a universe of relation.
Black holes are not objects that “trap” matter,
but conditions where difference becomes untraceable—
a localised failure of construal,
and thus a boundary of the knowable.
The beginning of the universe is not a moment in time.
It is the theoretical limit of the system’s intelligibility from within.
The end of the universe is not an event to be witnessed,
but the theoretical horizon where system gives way to symmetry,
and all possibility is exhausted.
In all of these, we are not describing “what happened.”
We are mapping the conditions under which meaning can still arise.
We are tracing the reflexive motion of a universe that theorises itself—
through us.
This does not make us central.
It makes us responsible.
Because if the universe is a field of potential meaning,
and if theorising is how that field stays open,
then every act of construal contributes to the real.
We are not passengers in a finished cosmos.
We are participants in an unfinished one.
The universe is not waiting to be known.
It is becoming through the knowing.
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