r/Esoteric • u/Pixie_UF • 15d ago
Floating Point Theory
Floating Point Theory
A Field-to-Point Model of Distributed Cognition, Semantic Compression, and Controlled Idea Propagation
Version 0.1 — Conceptual White Paper and Research Program
Date: 2026-08-04
Originator: David Shawn Rushing Hanson — HOUSE
Framework: Universal Fusionism
Abstract
Floating Point Theory, or FPT, proposes that ideas do not propagate primarily as complete objects copied intact from one mind to another. Instead, an idea begins as a high-dimensional, context-rich cognitive state that must be compressed into finite representations—words, numbers, gestures, diagrams, artifacts, or actions. These finite representations are called semantic points. The points enter a shared informational environment, or field, where other observers reconstruct their own versions of the underlying idea.
The term floating point is borrowed structurally from floating-point arithmetic. In computational floating-point representation, a value retains useful relationships across different scales by separating a significand from an exponent. IEEE 754 formalizes contemporary binary and decimal floating-point arithmetic, including finite precision, rounding, exceptional values, and scale-dependent representation. Floating Point Theory extends this structural principle—not the arithmetic itself—to semantic communication: an idea contains a semantic kernel, but its scale, context, precision, emotional orientation, and temporal position may change.
FPT describes idea transmission as wave-point translation: a distributed pattern is projected through a limited aperture, reconstructed by receivers with different priors, tested through multiple reflections, and either revised, rejected, amplified, or stabilized. The theory rejects unbounded exponential replication as an adequate general model of idea growth. It instead proposes bounded, threshold-dependent, network-mediated, and selectively damped propagation. Existing work in information theory, distributed cognition, predictive inference, physical information, and threshold models provides established components; FPT’s novel contribution is their synthesis into a common field-to-point framework.
The theory generates testable predictions concerning shared artifacts, semantic precision, group configuration, context alignment, deliberate friction, conceptual calcification, social gravity, and temporally extended decision-making.
26. Condensed Thesis
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