So far, I have described Coherence Filters in terms of exclusion: they prune the Chaos Reservoir by eliminating sequences of bits that fail invariants, violate consistency, or collapse into noise. This approach is powerful: it formalizes coherence as what survives when contradictions are filtered out.
But there is another, complementary view. Instead of exclusion, we can imagine a filter that works by semantics: it assigns meaning to every bit of an infinite sequence, treating it as a measurement record, a symbolic trace of an evolving universe. In this post I introduce this concept — the Semantic Filter — and explore how it refines, rather than replaces, the exclusion view.
1. Exclusion vs. Semantics
Exclusion Filter: defines a subset F of the set of all infinite binary sequences. A string is coherent if it passes the filter (no forbidden blocks, no contradictions, statistical constraints satisfied).
Semantic Filter: defines a mapping S from F to T, where T is the space of lawful trajectories (e.g., state-vector evolutions, automaton runs). Each bitstring becomes a measurement record, an unfolding consistent with some dynamics.
The refinement is clear: exclusion narrows Chaos to the set worth interpreting; semantics then provides lawful meaning for those survivors.
2. Bits as Measurement Outcomes
Imagine each bit in a string as a quantum measurement:
A 0 or 1 is not just a digit, but the outcome of measuring some observable.
The semantic filter specifies the initial state and measurement operators.
The string then corresponds to a trajectory:
|ψ0⟩ → |ψ1⟩ → |ψ2⟩ → …
updated step by step by outcomes.
Here coherence is not “absence of contradiction” but “lawful continuation under dynamics.”
3. The Danger of No Exclusion
If the exclusion filter excludes nothing, the semantic filter must shoulder all the weight. Every random string must be mapped into some trajectory, including pathological ones. In practice, the semantics would quietly reintroduce exclusion by mapping incoherent strings to trivial or null histories.
Thus, exclusion remains essential. It prunes Chaos so semantics can focus on assigning lawful meaning to the remainder.
4. Examples
Exclusion: Forbid the substring
00. Then only strings without00survive.Semantics: Treat surviving strings as records of a qubit evolving under the rule:
0= apply a flip operator,1= identity. The surviving strings now correspond to valid qubit trajectories.
5. Place in the Arc
Chaos Reservoir — all possible random strings.
Exclusion Filters — prune contradictions, enforce invariants.
Semantic Filters — assign lawful dynamics to the survivors.
Constructors — persistent patterns within trajectories.
Life and Consciousness — self-maintaining and self-representing constructors.
Conclusion
Exclusion defines what can exist. Semantics defines what those survivors mean. Together, they form a two-step refinement: first prune Chaos, then map the remainder into lawful worlds. Consciousness, physics, and life all ride on this dual foundation.
The name Semantic Filter captures its generative role: turning raw randomness into meaningful histories.