Meaning-System

1. Canonical Definition

A meaning system is any bounded environment in which interpretation governs coordinated behavior across agents and time.

In MSS, a meaning system is defined by the structural conditions that determine interpretive reliability, not by its content, values, or substrate. A meaning system may be an individual, team, organization, institution, culture, or artificial agent, provided it exhibits interpretation as a system behavior and operates with the variable architecture of T, P, C, D, and A.

2. Featured Lineage

Niklas Luhmann — Social Systems (1984)
Treated meaning as a systemic medium that structures coordination. MSS extends this by specifying measurable variables that condition interpretive stability within a meaning system.

Stafford Beer — Brain of the Firm (1972)
Modeled viability through regulation and structural architecture. MSS adapts this by treating interpretive stability as a viability constraint governed by proportional conditions and drift rate.

3. Plainly

A meaning system is the system object where meaning must remain reliable for coordination to work. If coordinated action depends on interpretation, the environment qualifies as a meaning system.

4. Scientific Role in Meaning System Science

Meaning systems are the system object class analyzed across Meaning System Science, including but not limited to System Evolution Theory (SET), which examines how such systems reorganize under sustained proportional strain. The definition enables:

• boundary discipline for measurement and diagnosis

• comparability across system types and scales

• application of legitimacy (L) as a property of the declared system boundary

5. Relationship to the Variables (T, P, C, D, A)

• T: reference continuity within the boundary

• P: convergent signals across roles and channels

• C: usable pathways that distribute meaning consistently

• D: rate of unresolved inconsistency accumulation under throughput

• A: correction and update capacity under load

6. Relationship to the Physics of Becoming

L = (T × P × C) ÷ D

The First Law applies to meaning systems as a system class. Legitimacy is a property of the system’s proportional stability, not a property of individual sentiment.

7. Application in Transformation Science

Transformation Science treats meaning systems as dynamic objects that reorganize under proportional strain. It analyzes variable movement over time, drift concentration across topology, and instability imported through coupling.

8. Application in Transformation Management

Practitioners declare the meaning system boundary, map topology zones and interfaces, and design corrections that strengthen stabilizers and reduce drift rate within scope.

9. Example Failure Modes

• boundaries are assumed rather than declared, producing incompatible diagnoses

• subsystems operate on different baselines, lowering fidelity across the whole

• correction pathways are absent or bypassed, increasing unresolved inconsistency

• evaluation constraints vary across units, producing locally defined standards

10. Canonical Cross References

General Theory of Interpretation • Interpretation • Interpretive Event • Meaning System Science • Physics of Becoming • First Law of Moral Proportion • Proportionism • Interface • Meaning Topology • Coupling • Legitimacy (L) • Truth Fidelity (T) • Signal Alignment (P) • Structural Coherence (C) • Drift (D) • Affective Regulation (A) • Closure Failure • Constraint Failure • Transformation Science • Transformation Management • Meaning System Governance • LDP 1.0