Minimal Semiotic State-Space Framework
SUBIT = WHO × WHERE × WHEN
A cybersemiotic framework for modeling state transitions in complex systems. It combines second-order cybernetics, Peircean semiotics, and dynamical systems theory into a minimal operational grammar.
| Coordinate | Scale | Domain |
|---|---|---|
| WHO | MICRO | Internal agency, subjectivity (ME/WE/YOU/THEY) |
| WHERE | MACRO | Environmental position, context (EAST/SOUTH/WEST/NORTH) |
| WHEN | META | Observer reflexivity, time (SPRING/SUMMER/AUTUMN/WINTER) |
Any semiotic process involves all three scales simultaneously.
Each coordinate takes 4 values → 4³ = 64 states.
WHO: ME (10) • WE (11) • YOU (01) • THEY (00)
WHERE: EAST (10) • SOUTH (11) • WEST (01) • NORTH (00)
WHEN: SPRING (10) • SUMMER (11) • AUTUMN (01) • WINTER (00)
|SUBIT| = |{0,1}⁶| = 64
The 64-state configuration space naturally corresponds to:
- I Ching – 64 hexagrams (6 lines = 6 bits)
- Genetic code – 64 codons (4³)
- Cybersemiotic archetypes – 64 fundamental configurations of agency, space, and time
Isomorphism of transition structures, not identity of systems
- Minimal operational grammar – not another philosophy, but a working state-space machine
- Anti-reductionism – same topology across domains does not imply same ontology
- Second-order cybernetics – observer (WHEN = META) is always included
- Semiotic transitions – change of state = interpretive act
from subit import SubitState, Who, Where, When
# Create a state
state = SubitState(Who.ME, Where.EAST, When.SPRING)
# Get 6-bit representation (I Ching hexagram)
print(state.to_hexagram()) # "101010"
# Shift coordinates cyclically
next_state = state.shift_who(1) # ME → WEsubit/
├── README.md
├── LICENSE
├── STRATEGY.md
│
├── formalism/ # Formal definitions
├── src/ # Python implementation
├── simulations/ # Random walks, attractors
├── tests/ # Unit tests
├── cybersemiotics/ # Integration with Brier, Peirce, Luhmann
├── docs/ # Why WHO-WHERE-WHEN?
└── manifesto/ # Conceptual foundations
- Minimal formalism
- Core Python implementation
- 3D state-space visualization
- Interactive SUBIT State Explorer
- Category-theoretic reconstruction
- ArXiv papers
SUBIT provides the missing operational layer for:
- Søren Brier – Cybersemiotic Star
- Charles Sanders Peirce – Triadic semiosis
- Niklas Luhmann – Social systems theory
- Humberto Maturana & Francisco Varela – Autopoiesis
It does not replace these theories. It offers a minimal grammar of state transitions that can be mapped onto them.
MIT