Gravitational Meaning: Relativity and the Actualisation of Experience

In the classical view, gravity is a force between masses. In Einstein’s view, it is the curvature of spacetime. But in a relational model grounded in a semiotic ontology, gravity is not a thing at all. It is a variation in the conditions under which material-order meaning—meaning that symbolically construes physical processes—is actualised.

This reframing challenges the metaphysical assumptions of both classical and relativistic physics. It suggests that what changes in a gravitational field is not an underlying substance, but the symbolic conditions through which space, time, and motion are construed as experience.

Let’s unpack this carefully.

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Space and Time Are Not Things, But Semiotic Dimensions

We begin by letting go of the notion that space and time are things—independent entities, or containers in which physical events occur. In a relational and semiotic ontology, they are not given, but construed. They are dimensions of meaning: patterned distinctions made by a meaner—a meaning-making system—as it symbolically represents physical processes.

This means space and time are not fixed frameworks. They are not absolute. Their construal depends on the network of physical relations in which the meaner is situated—relations such as gravitational potential or kinetic motion. In this view, space and time are not universal coordinates, but relational construals of unfolding processes, shaped by the meaner's position within a field of meaning.

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Gravitational Effects Are Variations in Symbolic Conditions

Einstein’s equations predict—and observation confirms—that in the presence of massive bodies, spatial intervals contract and temporal intervals dilate. In classical or relativistic terms, this is often taken to mean that space and time themselves are deformed. But if space and time are not objective containers but semiotic dimensions, what then is contracting or dilating?

In this model, such changes reflect variations in the conditions under which experience is symbolically actualised. That is:

• Spatial contraction is not a deformation of space itself, but a difference in how spatial meaning is instantiated under conditions of greater gravitational potential.

• Temporal dilation is not a warping of time, but a modulation in the symbolic conditions under which unfolding processes are construed as taking time.

These are not distortions of a universal grid. They are contextual modulations of symbolic meaning, shaped by gravitational relations.

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Instantiation Is the Actualisation of Meaning, Not Material Change

To be precise: instantiation is not a material process. It is a semiotic one—a process of actualising meaning potential. In this context, it is the symbolic construal of physical processes: the way meaning is brought forth to make experience intelligible.

So when we say that gravity alters the conditions of actualisation, we do not mean that mass physically alters meaning. We are not claiming that signs are pushed around by gravitational fields. Rather, we are saying this:

• The construal of space and time as physical dimensions is a symbolic act.

• That symbolic act unfolds under conditions shaped by the field of physical relations—such as gravitational potential.

• Therefore, what is actualised as experience (e.g., motion, distance, duration) differs according to those relations.

Meaning does not hover above the world. It emerges within it, shaped by relational conditions.

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The Meaner Is Situated Within the Field

The meaner is not outside the system. It is not a neutral observer peering in from nowhere. The meaner is within the field of relation, and its construal of meaning is shaped by its specific position in that field.

This is why two meaners, situated at different gravitational potentials, will construe different durations of the same unfolding. What differs is not the passing of some universal time, but the semiotic actualisation of temporal meaning, shaped by distinct gravitational relations.

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Observed Measurement Is an Act of Meaning

Measurement is not the passive registration of an independent reality. It is an act of construal—a symbolically mediated event in which physical experience is made meaningful.

This means gravitational time dilation is not just a mechanical effect. It is a difference in how meaning potential is actualised under varying gravitational conditions. The same applies to spatial contraction. What changes is not “time itself” or “space itself,” but the semiotic construal of experience, modulated by the relational field.

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Conclusion: Gravity as Symbolic Condition

To reframe gravity in this way is not to deny physics, but to resituate it within the symbolic order—to recognise that what physics describes is not a world independent of meaning, but a world made intelligible through symbolic acts of construal.

Gravity, then, is not merely a force or a curvature. It is a symbolic condition: a variation in the field of relation that shapes how meaning is actualised.

In this light, the relativistic effects of gravity are not distortions of a cosmic stage, but variations in the unfolding of meaning—a reminder that all experience, even at the scale of stars and spacetime, is a symbolic event.