The archive
An observation makes a question. The question makes a distinction. The distinction reveals a relationship. The relationship suggests a rule. The rule produces a model — which then meets a counterexample.
Frameworks
Structured models being developed. Some stable, some exploratory.
A system is a relationship changing under a ruleParts, plus a rule between them, produce behaviour over time.stablePositive feedback amplifies. Negative feedback stabilises.Growth and control are one design problem, not two.stableThresholdsWhere growth becomes instability.developingHuman infrastructureMany digital systems ultimately run on coordinated human action.developingAccess, not desirePossibility depends less on wanting than on what you can actually reach.stableTrust accumulatesNot binary, not permanent, and it can unlock capability.developingSelf-structureHow an organised self may shape what becomes salient, attended to and believed.exploringThe observer and the observedWhether a thing can be described without specifying the position it is described from.exploringEmergenceHow simple relationships produce behaviour that looks complex.exploringTotal geometryThe geometry as the boundary of permissible positions — not a drawn shape.exploringChanges of geometry, changes of permissionWhen the geometry changes, what is permitted changes — and coherence is whether the two move together.exploringConstraintsA constraint is not only an obstacle. It is the shape of what is allowed.developingAccidents as relational outcomesAccidents as outcomes of interacting conditions, incomplete observation, available interventions and the continued viability of a system.developing
Open questions
Unresolved, and kept visible rather than held back until answered.
Where does friction belong?Restriction is not good or bad. It has a location.exploringWhat is the smallest possible system?Can one thing form a relationship with itself?seedCan observation be separated from descriptions of dimension?Or is every description a description from a position?exploringWhat minimum property distinguishes reaction from experience?How would we demonstrate that a system lacks subjective awareness?exploringWhen does access become freedom?You can be free to do something and unable to do it.exploringHow do you amplify hard enough to grow, and stabilise hard enough to survive it?The current question.exploringHow does order emerge from purely local interactions?No central instruction, and yet structure.exploringWhat makes one outcome more probable than another?Not what caused it — what tilted it.exploringWhat part of identity remains when the conditions change?seedCan people themselves function as digital infrastructure?And what obligations follow if they can?exploringHow does self-structure influence salience?The narrow version of a claim that is usually made far too widely.exploringWhat would make the Strixformes formula worth more than a name?I have a formulation and a set of counterexamples. Neither is a result. This is the standard I have to meet.exploringWhen does a contained thing fit?How a contained object's own geometry, its position and the conditions of the container decide whether it can exist there.exploringWhat stays coherent when everything expands at once?The containing geometry and the relationships inside it expanding concurrently.seedWhat survives every change of view?What an observer can rely on across observations — and whether knowing it changes the outcome.seedWhere is the centre of a structure?If it is not simply its most connected part, the centre is set by the structure's relationships and parameters — and that still needs a definition.seed
Working principles
Compact statements I return to. Dated, and open to revision.
I remain coherent towards GreatnessThe word doing the work is “towards”. The other is “coherent”.stableA condition does not have to define the observer experiencing itThe worst condition can exist. So can the best. Neither is the position from which it is described.stableCreation does not stop. It expands into another phase.Which is why nothing here is sorted into successes and failures.stableMetrics are representations. People create the behaviour they represent.stableChanging my mind after finding a better explanation is progressCoherence matters more than protecting an earlier conclusion.stablePosition comes before relationshipWhere something is decides what it can relate to, and which actions are permissible for it.exploringTime, inside a structure, is a sequence of changesWithin a structure, time is the order in which its states change.exploring
When a question gets formal
One of these went further than the others. The question of whether understanding a relationship lets you preserve an action turned into a viability problem, a formula, a set of counterexamples that refuted the version of it I started with, and a deposited preprint.
It is the same kind of thinking as everything above, carried to the point where it could be written down precisely enough to be checked — and then checked.