Relational Process Theory

A Systems Account of Hebbian Ignition

Seth Surface

11/7/2025

 

1. Energy and Structure

The universe is not a collection of things but a flow of processes. Every particle, atom, organism, and mind is a momentary pattern in the greater field of energy, a stabilized rhythm in the ongoing dance of becoming. Where energy meets constraint, structure is born. Structure is not opposed to energy but is energy remembered — the sediment of flow. Each boundary, membrane, or pattern represents a history of interactions that proved stable enough to persist.

In this view, the universe is a system of systems, each defined not by substance but by relation. A structure endures only so long as its internal tensions maintain coherence with its environment. This coherence arises when energetic flows encounter structural edges — thresholds where difference and continuity meet. At these edges, information emerges: the patterned trace of energy’s encounter with form. Thus, meaning itself can be understood as the shape of difference through which energy moves. Meaning is not something minds project onto reality; it is reality’s relational curvature, the geometry of adaptive flow.

When a system of differentiated elements sustains mutual regulation through energy exchange, it becomes more than the sum of its parts. Its relations — not its components — define its identity. This is the foundation of Relational Process Theory: the claim that reality’s fundamental units are not entities but relations-in-motion. A system’s health, complexity, and adaptivity depend on its ability to maintain tension without collapse, to balance differentiation with linkage.

Where flow and form meet, pressure arises — the local concentration of potential energy. Over time, systems learn to regulate this pressure through feedback loops that preserve internal stability while allowing external coherence. The dynamic equilibrium between energy and structure is the heartbeat of existence: too rigid, and the system dies of stasis; too chaotic, and it dissolves into noise. Between them lies the living flame of complexity.

2. Learning and Memory

Whenever energy encounters structure, change occurs. This change — whether in a neuron, an organism, or a society — is learning. Learning is not limited to brains; it is the universal principle by which systems adapt to their environments. Every interaction leaves a trace: a reconfiguration of structure that encodes the success or failure of prior action. Over time, these traces accumulate, forming the system’s memory — a distributed record of past integrations.

In biological and psychological systems, learning manifests as Hebbian ignition: the point at which differentiated elements (neurons, thoughts, agents) begin firing together, locking into a coherent feedback pattern. The classical statement “neurons that fire together wire together” captures only a small part of this deeper thermodynamic truth. When two or more energetic flows become reciprocally coupled, their mutual reinforcement stabilizes a new structural pathway. This is ignition — the moment potential energy converts into sustained pattern.

Memory, then, is not a static storehouse but a living resonance. It persists because it is continually re-energized by the system’s present interactions. Structural memory functions like the charred wick of a previous fire — a scaffold upon which new ignition can occur. Each act of learning reshapes the system’s energetic topology, altering its future possibilities for coherence.

In human cognition, this process unfolds through recursive loops of attention and awareness. Attention narrows energy flow, increasing pressure and focusing ignition. Awareness diffuses it, integrating new patterns into the broader field of systemic stability. The continual dance between the two generates the rhythm of consciousness itself — a pulsing between ignition and integration, between the momentary blaze of novelty and the steady glow of coherence.

To learn is to burn, but sustainably: to transform incoming energy into structure without consuming one’s capacity for future adaptation. In this sense, learning and memory are not separate phases but aspects of a single thermodynamic process — the continual reorganization of energy into enduring coherence.

3. Differentiation — Fuel and Oxidizers

No system ignites in a vacuum. Combustion — literal or metaphorical — requires difference. A fire begins when a fuel and an oxidizer meet under sufficient pressure. Likewise, complexity emerges only when differentiated elements are brought into relational tension. Differentiation provides potential energy; linkage provides direction.

In the psychological domain, differentiation corresponds to the distinct functions or identities within a system — the parts of self, the nodes of a network, the variables of a model. Each possesses its own structure and trajectory. When isolated, these elements store potential but lack flow. The oxidizer — the relational medium that allows exchange — is tension: the charged field of difference that draws distinct elements into interaction.

Tension is not the enemy of coherence but its precondition. It is the difference that makes integration possible. In Siegel’s language, integration requires both differentiation and linkage. When systems lose differentiation, they collapse into rigidity; when they lose linkage, they dissolve into chaos. Adaptive health arises from their reciprocal balance — a system’s ability to sustain pressure without rupture, to circulate energy across boundaries without erasing them.

In this framing, R(t) can be understood as the system’s current field of relational tension — the sum of all feedback pressures operating across its differentiated structures. I(t) represents its integration trajectory — the direction and stability of its adaptive regulation. Together, R(t) and I(t) describe the system’s capacity to convert difference into coherence: to burn brightly without consuming itself.

At every scale, from molecules to minds to civilizations, evolution proceeds through cycles of differentiation and integration. As elements diversify, new pathways for energy exchange emerge. When these pathways become mutually reinforcing, ignition occurs, and a higher-order coherence is born. Differentiation thus serves as the fuel of evolution, and tension as its oxidizer. The universe learns by burning its differences into unity.

4. Emergent Process — Combustion

Ignition marks the birth of emergence. When differentiated structures enter into coherent feedback, they begin to regulate each other’s flow of energy, forming a new systemic whole. The fire catches, not because one element dominates, but because each participates in a larger pattern of mutual regulation.

Combustion is the phase in which potential becomes actuality. Energy once trapped in isolated differences now moves freely through the network, reorganizing structure at every level. The system’s boundaries shift: what was once external becomes internal, and vice versa. New meanings arise as flows are redirected through newly formed relational channels.

At this stage, integration is both a structural and temporal process. Structurally, it links differentiated components into stable resonance. Temporally, it maintains continuity across moments of change, preserving coherence through transformation. Integration is thus the process by which energy learns to remember itself — how flow stabilizes into pattern without freezing into rigidity.

Emergence follows a characteristic dynamic. First, localized ignitions form between compatible elements. These micro-integrations spread as their resonance strengthens, linking into larger patterns. Eventually, the entire system enters a state of adaptive resonance: a condition of self-sustaining coherence capable of modifying its own structure in response to environmental input.

At this point, the system begins to exhibit new properties — awareness, intelligence, agency — that cannot be reduced to its parts. These emergent qualities are not epiphenomenal illusions but genuine expressions of relational organization. Just as a flame is not the molecules but the pattern of their interaction, consciousness is not the neurons but the pattern of their ignition.

Combustion thus serves as both metaphor and mechanism for emergence. The system’s meaning arises through its own burn — through the continual conversion of potential into coherent action. The more effectively it integrates its differentiated elements, the more adaptive and complex it becomes. Yet this complexity carries risk: the same feedback that sustains coherence can, if unbalanced, consume the system entirely.

To burn is to live on the edge of instability. The art of existence — for stars, cells, and civilizations alike — is to sustain a flame that neither dies nor destroys itself.

5. The HRR Process — Ignition, Growth, Maximum Complexity, and Decay

Fire science provides a remarkably precise model for the temporal phases of relational process. According to the NFPA 921 Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigation, a typical heat-release-rate (HRR) curve includes four stages: ignition, growth, steady-state (maximum complexity), and decay. These stages mirror the life cycle of every adaptive system, from neural networks to empires.

* Ignition — the threshold of coherence.
Here, differentiated elements find just enough relational tension to begin feedback coupling. The system crosses a critical point: energy that once dissipated now circulates. Hebbian ignition occurs when local interactions reinforce each other strongly enough to form a stable loop. This is the birth of coherence, the moment a system becomes aware of its own process.

A. Growth — amplification of resonance.
As feedback loops multiply, the system’s complexity expands. Energy flow increases, differentiation deepens, and new structures emerge. The process becomes self-accelerating; learning and memory reinforce one another. In cognitive systems, this is the phase of exploration, creativity, and heightened adaptivity. The flame grows brighter, fueled by both novelty and feedback.

B. Maximum Complexity — steady-state burning.
The system achieves dynamic equilibrium: energy inflow and outflow balance, maintaining coherence across scales. At this point, integration reaches its zenith — the system is fully involved in its environment, resonating with maximum adaptivity. For a mind, this is flow; for a civilization, the golden age; for a star, main-sequence burning. It is the moment when structure and energy are perfectly coupled.

C. Decay — depletion or transformation.
Every system eventually exhausts its fuel or exceeds its capacity to regulate tension. Differentiations collapse, feedback weakens, and coherence unravels. Decay is not merely death but transition: the release of stored energy back into the field. The ashes of one process become the fuel for another. Systems that learn to transform rather than resist decay achieve a form of immortality through adaptation.

This HRR cycle describes not only the evolution of fires but the dynamics of all relational systems. Each phase reflects a mode of being: ignition as birth, growth as development, maximum complexity as maturity, and decay as transformation. The oscillation between them constitutes the rhythm of reality itself.

Crucially, decay is not failure but feedback. It signals the limits of coherence within a given structure and the invitation to reorganize at a higher level. When a system integrates its own decay — when it learns from entropy — it becomes capable of regeneration. This is the secret of adaptive evolution: to burn, collapse, and re-ignite in ever more complex forms.

In psychological terms, this corresponds to the capacity for reflective awareness — the ability to witness one’s own breakdown and use it as fuel for growth. Integration is not the avoidance of disintegration but its transformation into learning. In this sense, resilience is the art of sustainable combustion.