Deep section · M — Meaning

Meaning (M): patterns that matter in a story

Meaning in IO emerges when information and value are not just momentary, but organised across time into expectations, models, and narratives that guide a system's ongoing activity.

1. From signals to significance

A raw signal—a light turning red, a sound, a symbol—becomes meaningful when it is tied into a structure of:

• what it typically precedes,
• what it calls for in response,
• and how that response connects to what the system values.

Meaning is not in the bare shape of the signal alone, but in its role inside a larger web of information and value.

2. Personal and shared meaning

Human meaning-making adds extra layers: language, culture, memory, reflection. A melody can mean comfort for one person and grief for another because it connects to different stories and values.

IO does not try to collapse all of this richness into a single formula. Instead, it emphasises the common structure: a pattern acquires meaning for a system when it plays a role in how that system interprets and responds to the world in light of what it cares about.

3. Meaning and prediction

Many forms of meaning are predictive. A warning call means a predator is likely nearby; a scientific model's graph means a particular observable is expected to behave in a certain way under specified conditions.

The link to value is crucial: the same information can have different meanings for different systems depending on what is at stake for them and what they have learned to expect.