THE METAPHOR MAP

A minimal, generative mapping between core concepts and the three metaphor families.

This map ensures:

• consistency

• intuitive clarity

• visual extrapolation

• minimal metaphor sprawl

• structural alignment

Everything stays rooted in three metaphor families:

1. Water → Rivers as Flow, gradients, dynamics; Seas as Assembled Superpositions; Waves as Expressed Superpositions

2. Wood and Screws → Assembly, structure, constraints, interface patch

3. Fruit, Seeds, and Trees → Substrate, replication, recursion, emergence, growth, stability

Each family is a visualization engine.

1. Water: Rivers, Seas, Waves

This family is used whenever the concept involves:

• RIVERS — Flow, Directionality, Gradients

  • Rivers illustrate dynamic behavior shaped by structure.

    • Directionality
      Flow follows the gradient; coherence has a preferred direction.

    • Coherence gradients
      The slope of the riverbed is the generator of flow.

    • Perturbation vs. stability
      Rapids vs. calm water; turbulence vs. laminar flow.

    • Flow of information or influence
      How signals propagate through a system.

    • Boundary‑shaped behavior
      Riverbanks constrain and guide the flow.

    • Turbulence vs. calm
      High‑energy vs. low‑energy states.

    • Convergence or divergence
      Tributaries merging; deltas splitting.

    • Structural role:
      Rivers model how coherence moves through a system.

• SEAS — Assembled Superpositions

  • Seas illustrate large‑scale, stable, collective structures.

  • Assembled Superpositions
    The sea is the integrated whole — many waveforms, one body.

  • Containers of other assemblies and structures
    Seas hold currents, ecosystems, thermoclines, storms.

  • Environments enabling interaction
    A medium where waves, currents, and organisms interact.

  • Opacity of interior structure
    The surface expresses behavior; the interior remains hidden.

  • Structural role:
    Seas model the assembled substrate — the stable environment in which dynamics occur.

• WAVES — Expressed Superpositions

  • Waves illustrate local expressions of deeper structure.

  • Waveforms
    Patterns of energy and information.

  • Expressed Superpositions
    Local, time‑bound expressions of the underlying sea.

  • Constructive and destructive interference
    Alignment amplifies; misalignment cancels.

  • Inevitability of interaction when synchronized in space and time
    Waves cannot avoid interacting when they overlap.

  • Interaction boundaries
    Shorelines, obstacles, and other waves shape expression.

  • Energy exchange
    Transfer, dissipation, amplification

​

​2. WOOD & SCREWS — STRUCTURAL MAPPING

Assembly, structure, constraints, interface patches, ...

This family models how systems hold together, how boundaries form, and how internal structure shapes external behavior.

 

Boards — Substrate & Structure

Boards illustrate the substrate that supports assembly, as:

• foundational structure

• load‑bearing capacity

• alignment requirements

• rigidity vs. flexibility

• dimensional constraints

• tolerance and fit

• failure modes (splitting, bowing, warping)

Structural role:

Boards represent the substrate — the stable components that define the system’s geometry.

 

Screws — Coupling, Constraint, and Conversion

Screws illustrate how parts interact and how forces transform, as:

• coupling between components

• rotational → translational conversion

• curved → linear mapping

• constraint enforcement

• tension and compression

• reversible vs. irreversible assembly

• precision vs. slop

• interface patches (threads as boundary geometry)

Structural role:

Screws represent interaction rules — the mechanisms that bind constituents and convert one mode of motion into another. A screw is a mechanical coherence gradient.

 

Joints — Boundaries & Interfaces

Joints illustrate how boundaries shape behavior, as:

• interface patches

• transparency vs. opacity

• what crosses the boundary vs. what stays internal

• stability vs. looseness

• friction, wear, and failure

• modularity and reconfiguration

• local constraints shaping global behavior

Structural role

Joints represent boundary conditions — the constraints that define what interactions are possible.

 

FRUIT, SEEDS & TREES — STRUCTURAL MAPPING

Substrate, replication, recursion, emergence, growth, stability.

This family models how systems unfold, propagate, and stabilize over time.

 

Seeds — Compression & Potential

Seeds illustrate minimal generative cores, like:

• compressed structure

• latent potential

• recursive rules encoded in minimal form

• invariants preserved across generations

• sensitivity to environment

• activation thresholds

• identity through propagation

Structural role:

Seeds represent the Seed Crystal itself — the minimal generator from which everything unfolds.

 

Trees — Recursion & Emergence

Trees illustrate recursive unfolding and emergent complexity, as in:

• branching patterns

• symmetry and asymmetry

• local rules → global structure

• nested hierarchies

• stability through distributed support

• growth constrained by environment

• resilience through redundancy

Structural role

Trees represent recursive emergence — how simple rules generate complex, stable structures.

 

Fruit — Expression & Replication

Fruit illustrates expressed outcomes and propagation mechanisms, such as:

• expressed superpositions of the tree’s internal structure

• replication vectors (seeds inside fruit)

• local expression of global structure

• attractors for interaction (animals, dispersal)

• lifecycle closure

• variation and mutation

Structural role

Fruit represents expressed behavior — the outward, time‑bound manifestation of deeper structure, carrying seeds for further recursion.

3. SEEDS & TREES → Recursion, Emergence, Growth

This family is used when the concept involves:

• unfolding

• recursion

• propagation

• nested structure

• generative rules

• emergence from simplicity

• branching complexity

Mapped Concepts

• The Seed Crystal itself

• Recursive operators

• Emergent behavior

• Potential vs. actual

• Compression vs. expansion

• Local vs. global structure

• Symmetry vs. asymmetry (branching patterns)

• Determinate vs. indeterminate growth

​

This metaphor family is organic, fractal, and generative.