16 Stability in Flow: Constraint, Coordination, and the Semiotic Spiral

(Post 16 in “Reflexive Matter: Relational Ontology and the Physics of Meaning”)

If the semiotic system is in motion — always evolving, always reconfiguring — then how is coherence maintained? How does communication remain possible at all, when the potential is constantly shifting?

In a reflexive ontology, this question cannot be answered by appealing to fixed meanings or universal forms. Instead, coherence must be understood as emergent — as a pattern of coordination under constraint.

Constraint as Constitutive

The semiotic system is a system of constrained possibility. These constraints are not limits imposed externally, but the very structure of the potential itself. They shape what can be meant, how it can be construed, and what counts as a recognisable move within a collective.

Crucially, constraint is not the opposite of freedom. It is the condition for meaningful variation. A cut is only legible as a cut because of the structure it traverses.

And when that structure evolves, constraint evolves with it — but not arbitrarily. There is inertia, interdependency, and pressure from the demands of coordination.

Coordination as Reflexive Alignment

Coordination is not mere agreement. It is the ongoing alignment of construals across a collective — a process through which meaning is negotiated, maintained, and adapted in use.

This alignment is not achieved by everyone construing the same way, but by construing in ways that resonate within a shared potential. That resonance relies on the system’s constraint structure — its regularities, redundancies, and affordances for inference.

Even as the system evolves, these alignments provide stabilising forces. They guide drift without enforcing stasis. They allow the system to remain intelligible even as it shifts.

The Semiotic Spiral

This brings us to the image of a semiotic spiral — a system in motion that loops back through its own construals, tightening or widening its patterns over time.

Each new construal is a moment of alignment and difference. Each instance nudges the system, but must also anchor itself within it. The result is a spiralling trajectory — not a straight line of progress, but a movement shaped by reflexive constraint, recursive variation, and collective history.

In this light, system and instance are not opposites but co-constitutive. Meaning is not given or found — it is maintained in motion.