Semepoiesis and the Constitution of Actuality: A quantum grounding for Signal-Bifurcation Theory

This paper develops the quantum grounding of Signal-Bifurcation Theory (SBT) by introducing Proto-Actuality and clarifying two constitutive thresholds: the constitution of actuality and the constitution of classicality. It extends SBT’s process-monist account across quantum mechanics, gravity, thermodynamics, biology, and consciousness within a single processual frame, rather than treating these as disconnected ontological layers. Core proposal Proto-Actuality names the non-sequential constitutive regime through which actuality is articulated as classically tractable under different conditions of description. It does not describe a temporal stage “before” the classical world, but the constitutive conditions under which stable structure becomes available for redundant inscription and classical description. Classicality becomes describable only where interaction supports stability-bias and stability-inscription: some configurations remain coherent across interaction and become robustly tractable, while others fail to stabilise. Quantum to classical bridge (SBT framing) The quantum-classical relation is framed in terms of stability. Classicality is not presupposed, but becomes the descriptive regime available once stable structure is redundantly inscribed through interaction. On this view, invariants and “laws” are not antecedent governance but compressed descriptions of stabilised regularities: summaries of what boundary-conditioned stability makes repeatedly describable. Two constitutive thresholds Constitution of actuality: the threshold at which stable structure becomes available within Proto-Actuality, prior to classical tractability. Constitution of classicality: the threshold at which actuality becomes classically describable through redundancy, decoherence, and stability-detection. Wavefunction (accessible framing) The wavefunction can be read here as a formal description of admissible structure under interaction: a way of tracking which configurations remain available and how they are weighted under conditions where classical tractability is not yet available in the relevant sense. It is not itself a catalogue of definite classical objects with definite properties, but a structured description of what the interactional situation makes available. Collapse (classical register) Within Proto-Actuality, non-classical configurations may stabilise without “collapse” being a well-formed description, because classical partitioning, definite outcomes, and spacetime ordering are not yet available in the relevant sense. In SBT, collapse becomes meaningful only within an already constituted classical regime, where it is interpreted as stability-detection: the point at which a configuration becomes describably definite through redundant inscription. Gravity, thermodynamics, and large-scale structure The same continuity is interpreted across larger scales. Gravity is read as large-scale structural stability rather than mediated force, spacetime geometry as the macroscopic expression of stable mass-energy distributions, and thermodynamic organisation as coherence maintained under energetic boundary conditions through regulated flux. These are not separate ontological domains, but distinct articulations of one Semepoietic continuity. Cosmology and boundary reconfiguration The paper does not treat the “Big Bang” as an ontological absolute beginning. Rather, cosmological beginnings and endings are treated as model-relative boundary descriptions internal to particular descriptive frameworks. Where cosmological analogies such as Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC) are invoked, they are heuristic and non-evidential: comparative ways of thinking continuity without a privileged absolute origin. Relation to consciousness (architectural continuity) Within the same continuity, SBT preserves its central architectural distinction: Semepoietic consciousness: the immediate, valence-weighted interior continuity of living organisation under sensorimotor coupling. Signal-Narration: the later symbol-interpreting diagnostic overlay through which interior continuity becomes reportable, partitioned, modelled, and re-weighted. Narration has genuine regulatory and interpretive function, but it is not the ground of consciousness. Continuity with earlier work This paper extends the quantum-grounding concept note (10.5281/zenodo.17829952) and develops the SBT architecture established in earlier work, including the concept note (10.5281/zenodo.17211873) and the core architectural essay (10.5281/zenodo.17257838). Terminology has been refined to reduce inherited metaphysical baggage and to keep the exposition explicitly non-agentive and non-theological. The central commitments remain unchanged: Semepoiesis as one organisational continuity described at different resolutions; Semepoietic consciousness as biologically grounded interior continuity; and Signal-Narration as a derivative symbolic overlay operating within that continuity. Keywords Signal-Bifurcation Theory; SBT; Semepoiesis; Proto-Actuality; constitution of actuality; constitution of classicality; quantum-classical relation; stability-bias; stability-inscription; stability-detection; decoherence; einselection; process monism; philosophy of physics; thermodynamics; gravity; classicality; Semepoietic consciousness; Signal-Narration; Narrational Tangenting; Recursive-Centring; Meta-Recursive Centring