interdependence

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

Interdependence names the relational conditions through which beings arise, persist and affect one another, rather than connections added to already self-sufficient things. As Law 5, it includes exposure and co-constitution without guaranteeing care or goodness. A narrower use concerns mutually dependent components within technical or living systems, where changes must remain compatible with the organization they help sustain.

Explanation

AB generalizes embodied co-arising without erasing differences of scale. Indra's net supplies an image, not an extra mechanism, while the warning against equating relation with goodness is explicit. Relations can nourish or extract; selves are exposed to arrangements they neither chose nor can simply leave. RB2 develops this as co-individuation with milieus and histories, preserving real distinctions and boundaries. Its discussion of Haraway's making-with locates autopoiesis within broader collective co-production.

PB condenses the law as nothing changing alone and separately states that relation alone yields no morality. Its formal appendix offers a categorical articulation of co-individuation; that presentation is not substituted for the ordinary conceptual definition. RB3 emphasizes displaced costs and distributed harms, answering the threat of limitless personal guilt with institutional responsibility according to capacity.

RB1's adjective has a narrower functional use. In its account of Simondon, machine parts become more integrated through concretization, without machines thereby becoming alive or conscious. In its account of Riedl, interdependent parts constrain viable innovation; the surrounding qualification emphasizes relatively unburdened additions within an architectural plan resistant to change.

Scope and attribution

Constitutive Law 5 belongs to AB, PB, RB2 and RB3. RB1 owns the functional-component use, not the general law on the evidence reviewed. Greater connectedness is not inherently better.

AB — The Actual Book

Co-arising is generalized without erasing scale differences. Constitutive relations expose beings to care and harm; the achievement lies in which relations are sustained or refused.

Occurrence locators: 31, 49, 116, 117, 119, 122, 123, 124, 129, 135, 136, 183, 193, 198, 206, 209, 210; Glossary: 222, 226; Thinker register: 229; Appendix: 269, 270, 280, 283.

PB — The Possible Book

Nothing changes alone is the compact law. Relation alone supplies no morality. The formal appendix articulates co-individuation while distinguishing established mathematics from unverified portions of its sketch.

Occurrence locators: 34, 35, 102, 103, 105, 118, 153, 154; Reproduced historical essay: 201.

RB1 — The Real Book, Volume I: The Possible Is Real

Interdependent describes functional integration under Simondon's concretization and constraints on viable change under Riedl's burden. Machines are not thereby alive; relatively unburdened additions occur within an architectural plan resistant to change.

Occurrence locators: 33, 98, 110, 111, 169.

RB2 — The Real Book, Volume II: Becoming Is Being

Embodiment opens self to world, and autopoiesis is placed within making-with. Relations are constitutive without abolishing boundaries or guaranteeing goodness.

Occurrence locators: 8, 62, 148, 173, 174, 176, 178, 180, 182, 184, 191, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 276, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 291, 298.

RB3 — The Real Book, Volume III: Murmurations

Distributed harms enlarge the moral field beyond the visible local. Institutions should internalize externalities and allocate responsibility according to capacity, not prescribe universal guilt.

Occurrence locators: 47, 61, 65, 71, 74, 75, 77, 79, 80, 83, 87, 90, 97, 104, 110, 111, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 127, 128, 131, 134, 151, 158, 163, 172, 186, 191, 195, 204, 211, 227, 230, 235, 241, 246, 247, 250, 252, 257, 262, 270, 272, 274, 275, 277, 280, 283, 284, 285, 294, 298, 301, 304, 305, 312, 321, 332, 333, 341, 343; Living in a World of Relations: 345.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Domain-specific mechanisms and wider analogies remain distinguished. Original definitions retain their scope; local cross-references do not rewrite them. Named theories and mechanisms are distinguished from neighboring background, homonyms and the author’s own synthesis. Reproduced AI passages retain their separate voice.