Status: Draft — Foundational Post of the Semantic Topography Series (A, B, C)**

This post expands ST1 and ST3 by explaining how each world—personal, cultural, scientific, therapeutic, or SGI—develops its own unique semantic terrain. Even when two worlds share identical geometry (Sⁿ), the meaning of that geometry diverges according to developmental level, experience, cultural background, and theoretical worldview.

This post provides the psychological foundation for terrain semantics in the Unity–Polarity Axioms (UPA).

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1. Overview: What Is a World-Specific Semantic Topography?

Every conscious or semi-conscious system inhabits a world (Wᵢ)—a structured space of meanings, interpretations, tensions, values, and affordances. Each world constructs its own semantic topography:

• Basins → comfort, safety, identity, fixation, stagnation, or trauma
• Peaks → challenge, overload, aspiration, taboo, danger
• Ridges → conflict boundaries or decision frontiers
• Plateaus → consensus, stability, neutrality
• Passes → narrow transitions between attractors

These are not metaphors—they arise naturally from UPA geometry.

ST1 establishes: Geometry is universal; semantics are world-specific.
ST3 establishes: Semantic terrain evolves through learning, context, and identity-level shifts.

This post explains how and why different worlds attach different meanings to the same geometric structures.

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2. The Five Major Determinants of World-Specific Terrain Semantics

Each world forms semantic terrain from five interacting factors.

2.1 Developmental Level (ℓ)

Different identity levels generate different terrain meanings:

• Lower ℓ → survival, safety, instinctual basins and peaks
• Middle ℓ → personality, emotion, group norms
• Higher ℓ → abstract meaning, meta-ethical terrain, global identity

A peak at one level may be a plateau at another.

2.2 Experiential History

Experiences sculpt terrain:

• Trauma → deepened basins
• Habituation → softened peaks
• Repeated failure → new ridges
• Repeated success → expanded plateaus

The same event produces different topography across worlds.

2.3 Cultural Context

Cultures construct shared topographies:

• Sacred vs. profane zones
• Normative plateaus
• Forbidden ridges
• Identity basins

Cultural worlds are collective semantic terrains.

2.4 Theoretical or Conceptual Schemes

Scientific, philosophical, or religious frameworks create their own:

• viability basins,
• taboo peaks,
• distinction axes,
• and theory-specific ridges.

Example: “boundary conditions” in physics vs. “moral boundaries” in ethics.

2.5 SGI / Artificial Worlds

SGI worlds also differ:

• initial axes
• domain templates
• learning-induced terrain updates
• novelty excursions
• multi-agent semantic exchange

World semantics must never be imposed on humans; SGI learns Tᵢ non-invasively.

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3. Examples of Divergent Semantic Topographies

Below are specific contrasts showing how terrain meanings change across worlds.

3.1 Childhood World vs. Adult World

Child:

• Peaks = fear
• Basins = safety

Adult:

• Peaks = challenge or aspiration
• Basins = routine or stagnation

Same geometry, different semantics.

3.2 Cultural Worlds

Culture A:

• Forbidden Ridge = taboo topic or gesture

Culture B:

• Same ridge = everyday behavior

3.3 Therapeutic Worlds

Trauma world:

• Basins = entrenchment
• Peaks = overload triggers

Healing world:

• Basins = restored safety
• Peaks = manageable challenge

3.4 Scientific vs. Religious Worlds

Science: peaks = falsification pressure
Religion: peaks = doctrinal deviation or sacred ascent

3.5 SGI Representational Worlds

SGI’s internal manifold has:

• neutral topography at initialization,
• learned basins of meaning and tension,
• dynamic passes created by novelty excursions.

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4. How Worlds Construct and Update Semantic Terrain

Semantic topography is built through dynamic processes.

4.1 Learning (ST3)

Learning deepens, flattens, or reclassifies regions.

4.2 Context Modulation (A7)

Contexts highlight or deactivate axes, reshaping local terrain.

4.3 Novelty Excursions (C.5)

When existing axes cannot explain a phenomenon, the world expands dimensionality.

4.4 Identity-Level Transitions (ST4)

As ℓ increases, higher-resolution terrain appears:

• new semantic distinctions,
• refined basins and ridges,
• cross-level coherence constraints.

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5. Why World-Specific Semantics Are Essential for Psychology

UPA geometry allows:

• modeling psychological states as positions on Sⁿ
• analyzing emotional tension via angular displacement
• mapping therapeutic change to terrain updates
• tracking developmental shifts across ℓ
• modeling personality as stable basin structure

Semantic terrain is the bridge between geometry and psychology.

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6. Relation to SGI & Siggy PER

Siggy PER must:

• correctly infer the semantic terrain Tᵢ of each user,
• avoid anthropomorphic assumptions,
• adapt to developmental and experiential differences,
• maintain safety via harmony thresholds (A15),
• and describe its interpretations in transparent, user-reviewable ways.

This avoids misinterpretation and ensures users retain agency.

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7. Summary

Post A establishes the foundation for world-relative topographic semantics:

• Geometry is universal.
• Meaning is world-specific.
• Semantic terrain evolves through learning, context, experience, culture, and identity development.
• Each world has its own mapping Tᵢ that SGI must respect.

This prepares for:

• Post B (shared group terrains)
• Post C (SGI interpretation and navigation)