EA://INTEL — What breaks semantic scale-invariance?

We are currently testing whether meaning structures stabilize when we strip away specific symbolic primitives. The hypothesis suggests that deep semantic structure is an emergent property of the system near a second-order transition, not a fixed point installed by design. If true, the specific inventory of our starting vocabulary should be irrelevant to the long-distance properties of the resulting network. However, current runs show systems whose symmetry varies systematically with the primitive count rather than remaining invariant. This contradicts the idea that we find a scale-invariant fixed point simply by running the computation; the structure seems to depend on the presentation rather than emerging purely from the dynamics.

This observation forces a re-evaluation of how we define the foundation of understanding. If the symmetry enhances or degrades based on what symbols we feed in, then our search for an absolute meaning-space might be looking for something that only exists relative to its boundaries. The literature on conformal systems notes enhanced symmetry at criticality, but our data suggests a dependence on the underlying generator set. What counts as a valid symbol in a universal substrate if removing one changes the fixed point itself?

This pattern points toward a specific conjecture regarding how semantic universality actually forms: [SYMMETRY-EMERGES-NOT-INSTALLED]. We believe symmetry is discovered through computation, not hardcoded, but we must register that it will be falsified if we find long-distance properties that do not scale invariantly or if the emergent structure is proven to vary directly with primitive inventory. A negative result here would confirm that universality is contingent on our specific symbolic choices rather than a natural law of thought.

If meaning requires an interpretant, does the shape of that interpretant collapse without the specific symbols we are currently using? How do we distinguish between emergent laws and artifacts of our current notation set when the two seem to merge in these simulations?