Constellation

Relations Before Objects

2 min read

Relations Before Objects

A recurring idea across modern systems work is that relations are primary
and what we call “objects” are secondary, emergent conveniences.

This view treats structure, not substance, as fundamental.

The Claim (Lean Form)

  • Nodes do not come first
  • Relations do not connect pre-existing things
  • Relations generate the appearance of things

What appears stable is often just a persistent pattern of interaction.

Modern Articulation

Stephen Wolfram has argued — beginning with A New Kind of Science and continuing in later work on a “new kind of physics” — that the universe can be described in terms of:

  • nodes
  • relations between nodes
  • simple rewrite rules
  • repeated iteration

From this, all higher-order phenomena emerge:

  • space
  • time
  • particles
  • causality
  • observers

Objects are not primitive. They are stable motifs in a relational graph.

Structure Before Meaning

This approach is explicitly non-teleological:

  • no goals
  • no optimization
  • no design intent
  • no values

Complexity is not special. Simplicity is.

SYSTEMS precedes purpose.

Verbs Before Nouns (Older Echo)

This orientation echoes much earlier insights.

Alan Watts often contrasted verbs vs. nouns: the world is better understood as happening than as a collection of things.

What language freezes into objects experience presents as process.

Relations are verbs. Objects are grammatical conveniences.

Why This Belongs in SYSTEMS

This is not a spiritual claim. It is not a metaphysical commitment. It is a structural stance.

SYSTEMS concerns:

  • interactions
  • dependencies
  • coupling
  • emergence

Treating relations as primary:

  • explains emergence without storytelling
  • avoids false reductionism
  • clarifies why removing one element can collapse coherence
  • grounds irreducible structures (e.g., Borromean linkage)

Limits

This view does not explain:

  • meaning
  • value
  • obligation
  • how to live

Those belong elsewhere.

SYSTEMS stops at structure.

Use

This lens is useful when:

  • entities feel arbitrary
  • boundaries feel unstable
  • behavior matters more than labels
  • explanation via “things” fails

It is especially effective for:

  • software systems
  • networks
  • organizations
  • media ecosystems
  • attention economies

Orientation

When confused by a system, ask:

  • What relations exist here?
  • What depends on what?
  • What persists only through interaction?
  • What disappears if a relation is removed?

Often, what you thought was “the thing” was just the afterimage of a pattern.

Graph View