2 The Shimmering Edge

Picture a coastline seen from above. From a distance, it looks like a solid boundary: clear, definite, dividing land and sea. But as you move closer, the line dissolves into fractal detail — coves, inlets, tidal pools, shifting sands. The boundary is never stable, always in motion, shimmering between fixity and flux.

This thought experiment suggests that the boundary of meaning is like that coastline. From afar, construal presents itself as clear distinctions: this and not that, inside and outside, system and environment. But as we zoom in, the neat boundary dissolves into recursive complexity, where each edge generates new edges, and every cut reveals further cuts.

The paradox: meaning requires boundaries that can never be final. The line that secures coherence is always trembling with instability.

This reveals that:

• Boundaries in meaning are scale-dependent construals.

• The sharper the line appears, the more it hides its fractal instability.

• Stability is not the opposite of flux but a pattern arising within it.

Philosophical stakes:

• Are boundaries ever more than provisional stabilisations?

• Does coherence rest not on solidity, but on shimmering edges?

• Might every system of meaning be traced back not to a centre, but to an endlessly fraying shoreline?