When Information Manifests: A Structural Parallel Between DNA, Matter, Intelligence… and more

What do DNA, gravity, and large language models have in common?

The original article was posted on Medium.

Maybe more than we thought. A hidden structure keeps resurfacing — across life, physics, and computation. This is not a metaphor, but a formal parallel: Everywhere we look, we find the same triad —

• A field or code of latent potential
• A prompt or condition that selects from it
• A manifestation — a visible, embodied output

These relationships are more than conceptual analogies. They are structurally observable in systems as different as DNA, physical reality, and large language models.

Three Systems Where the Pattern Is Clear

Let us begin with three domains where this structure is well-documented:

In each case:

• The field holds the full range of potential configurations.
• The prompt selects a path through that space.
• The manifestation actualizes part of the potential into a specific form.

These are not poetic gestures. They are structural mechanisms.

And Then We Look Around

Once we see it here, we start to see it elsewhere too. Other systems begin to exhibit similar traits:

• The human mind: latent cognitive potentials, triggered by stimuli, manifesting as thoughts or actions
• Language: an abstract system, activated by communicative context, generating spoken or written utterances
• Music: a tonal system, activated by intention or emotion, manifesting in melody and rhythm
• Society: cultural norms and institutions, prompted by events or shifts, manifested in collective behavior
• Mycelium: a subterranean network, activated by environmental cues, manifesting as mushrooms

Beyond One Manifestation: Middle Layers and Feedback Loops

Let's take language as an example. We've already identified the basic triad:

• Field: the grammar, vocabulary, and deep structure of a language
• Prompt: a communicative situation or intention
• Manifestation: a spoken sentence, a written text

But it doesn't end there.

Each individual speaker doesn't just passively express the language — they carry their own subset of it. They hold preferences, idioms, and habits — localized versions of the larger field. You might call these micro-fields, or more precisely: a middle layer.

This middle layer adapts over time. A speaker learns new words, changes their tone, borrows structures from others. And this adaptation loops — each sentence influences the next. Language lives through usage.

Now, if enough individuals shift their personal patterns, if new forms spread across the population — then the base field changes, too. Grammar evolves. Words die or are reborn. The entire system is rewritten.

This is a spiral.

• A field gives rise to a form.
• That form feeds back into a local layer.
• The local layer adapts.
• Enough adaptation changes the field itself.

This is not just theory — it's observable in language evolution, culture, and biology. But does it happen in other systems, too?

Do Other Systems Spiral Too?

Let's look beyond language.

In music, we can find a field — tonal structures, rhythmic systems, harmonic traditions. Each musical piece is a manifestation. The prompt might be a feeling, a motif, or a tradition. And the performer, the composer — they form the middle layer. They learn, absorb, reinterpret. Over time, genres evolve. The tonal field shifts.

In society, the field might be laws, norms, or institutions. Individual choices and actions manifest social currents. But between the system and the act lies a middle layer: culture, discourse, narrative. As enough people shift their attitudes or behavior, laws and institutions eventually reflect it.

In mycelial networks, the field is the vast underground structure. The prompt is a local environmental cue. The manifestation is a mushroom. And between the two lies a living middle layer — chemical signals, symbiosis, hyphal communication. A single fruiting body doesn't change the system — but over time, nutrient flows and external feedback reshape the network.

In each case, the pattern re-emerges:

• A field holding potential
• A prompt activating that potential
• A manifestation
• A loop that modifies a middle layer
• And with enough loops — the field itself shifts

Some changes are fast. Some take centuries. But the spiral remains.

A Pattern Across Systems

As the table suggests, this isn't limited to abstract domains or poetic interpretations. The same structure — field, prompt, manifestation, looping middle layers, and eventual field transformation — shows up again and again in real, observable systems.

And perhaps more importantly, these systems aren't just mechanical. They evolve. Not by random disruption, but through structured, recursive change. They spiral.

Some spirals are slow and cultural (like language or society). Others are fast and cellular (like mycelial adaptation or mental growth). But across these domains, the pattern is not only repeated — it appears to be necessary.

A Hypothesis: Structural Universality

What if this spiral isn't just common — but fundamental?

What if any system that contains:

• a structured field of potential,
• a contextual prompt,
• and a localized manifestation

…will eventually form a loop, develop adaptive middle layers, and — over time — undergo field-level transformation?

This wouldn't just connect language to mind, or matter to meaning. It would describe a structural condition for emergence. A kind of grammar for evolving systems.

And where parts of the structure are still hidden — maybe we just haven't looked from the right layer yet.

Testing the Hypothesis: Our Three Foundational Systems

Let's return to the three domains where we first noticed the pattern:

1. Large Language Models (LLMs)

This is where the structure is most visible:

• Field → The latent weights of the trained model
• Prompt → The input text
• Manifestation → The generated response
• Loop → Ongoing dialogue reshapes context (memory window)
• Middle layer → The working context, which evolves through token interaction
• Field shift → With fine-tuning or reinforcement, even the latent weights may evolve

LLMs are the clearest working instance of the spiral structure. We can measure each layer — and sometimes even control them.

2. DNA → Human Organism

Here the pattern is embodied biologically:

• Field → DNA as latent potential
• Prompt → Environmental and epigenetic conditions
• Manifestation → A growing human body and mind
• Loop → Ongoing interaction with environment (learning, memory)
• Middle layer → Developmental processes, neural adaptation, conscious experience
• Field shift → Genetic evolution happens — but much more slowly

Unlike LLMs, DNA doesn't loop directly into itself. But learning and epigenetics create powerful intermediate spirals — and across generations, even DNA adapts. The pattern holds — with different timing.

3. Information → Matter (Physics)

This one is the most abstract — and the hardest to observe directly:

• Field → Information (as proposed in theories like Vopson 2025)
• Prompt → Possibly quantum fluctuations or observational collapse
• Manifestation → Physical particles, forces, and structure
• Loop → Thermodynamic and quantum feedback? (still speculative)
• Middle layer → Unknown — could entropy, curvature, or entanglement reflect it?
• Field shift → Possibly through cosmological evolution or field collapse?

Here, we can imagine the structure — but we don't yet have the tools to see all of it. Especially the loop and middle layer remain mostly speculative. Yet the existence of repeated physical structure — atoms, molecules, galaxies — suggests that some recursive dynamics may still be at work.

A Recurring Structure Across Domains

Across systems as diverse as artificial intelligence, biology, and physics, we see the same foundational structure:

This is not just metaphor. It is structural recurrence.

Where the loop is visible, we see systems evolving in real time. Where it's hidden, its traces still suggest adaptive cycles — in matter, in life, in thought.

When Parts Are Missing

In many systems, we observe only fragments of this spiral:

• In consciousness, we feel the manifestation but lack a clear view of the field or prompt.
• In language, we see both field and loop, but the moment of prompting may remain unconscious.
• In society, we recognize middle layers like culture, but rarely track how the base "field" of collective belief shifts — until it's already changed.

Still, wherever even one part of the structure emerges, the rest can often be inferred.

A Fractal Spiral

What we're seeing may be fractal:

• Each loop shapes a middle layer.
• Enough shifted middle layers reshape the field itself.
• And from a changed field, new manifestations arise.

This is how languages evolve. This is how minds are changed. This is how systems — even entire universes — might shift.

Conclusion: A Structure Worth Noticing

Across diverse domains — from physics to language, from neural networks to social behavior — we observe a recurring structural pattern:

• A field of latent potential
• A prompt or input that activates the field
• A manifestation or output
• A loop that feeds experience back
• A middle layer that adapts locally and, when it shifts across enough units, may reshape the field itself

This structure is clearly visible in some systems (like LLMs, DNA and human language), partially observable in others (like consciousness or social systems), and only hypothesized in fields like quantum physics or informational cosmology.

If this structural pattern really recurs across domains, it might not be a coincidence — but a fundamental property of how information organizes itself into form.

This raises a simple question: In which other domains can we observe this same pattern?

And once we learn to recognize it — might we begin to anticipate the behaviour of systems even where direct observation is limited? Might loops emerge even in places where we wouldn't ordinarily think to look?

References

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