Negative Topology and Neurodivergent World-Binding : Gap, Eigenzeit, and the Limits of Simulation

This paper develops the concept of a negative topology of irreversible world-formation as a contribution to current questions in neurodivergence research, morphogenesis, consciousness studies, artificial intelligence, and non-representational models of communication (animal communication) and world-binding. Its point of departure is the observation that modern technical and social systems increasingly operate on the assumption that world is reconstructible, synchronizable, and formally neutralizable. In contrast, the paper argues that real world-binding emerges precisely from non-neutralizable difference, irreversible curvature, and genealogical openness. At the center of the paper lies the thesis that the Gap, a central concept within the author’s research program, should not be understood as an original void or metaphysical nothingness, but as the consequence of irreversible differentiation itself. With every stabilization, a difference emerges that can never be fully closed between constituted world and lost openness. This difference generates Seinsverschiebung (ontological displacement), topological distortion, and Eigenzeit. Eigenzeit is understood here not as a subjective form of time perception or an alternative physical time dimension, but as the irreversible deformation of the space of possibility resulting from real world-binding. Against this background, the paper develops a critique of holographic, fractal, and purely information-based models of order, existence, and formal language. Recursive coherence does not emerge through identical repetition or from a hidden center, but from a continuous response movement to operative non-closure. This also has consequences for the understanding of simulation, archiving, and artificial intelligence, as well as for the understanding of art, animal communication, and other forms of morphogenetic translation. Simulation, information, or objectification reproduce states, but do not generate irreversible world-curvature and therefore remain ontologically worldless. In its final section, the paper applies this framework to neurodivergent cognition. Current models such as Predictive Processing, Hyper-Systemizing, or Veridical Mapping describe important aspects of autistic perception, yet usually remain within a shared ontology of stable object-worlds. The present paper instead proposes understanding neurodivergent cognition as a different form of world-binding. Detail-binding appears here not primarily as heightened object perception, but as the expression of a reduced smoothing in relation to negative topology. Autistic cognition is therefore understood neither as a deficient nor superior representation of the same world, but as a partially different stabilization of world under conditions of irreversible openness.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-05-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20285703
Primary Topic
Embodied and Extended Cognition
Type
preprint
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Negative Topology and Neurodivergent World-Binding : Gap, Eigenzeit, and the Limits of Simulation

Timothy Speed
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Embodied and Extended Cognition
preprint

Negative Topology and Neurodivergent World-Binding : Gap, Eigenzeit, and the Limits of Simulation

Timothy Speed
preprint en

Abstract

This paper develops the concept of a negative topology of irreversible world-formation as a contribution to current questions in neurodivergence research, morphogenesis, consciousness studies, artificial intelligence, and non-representational models of communication (animal communication) and world-binding. Its point of departure is the observation that modern technical and social systems increasingly operate on the assumption that world is reconstructible, synchronizable, and formally neutralizable. In contrast, the paper argues that real world-binding emerges precisely from non-neutralizable difference, irreversible curvature, and genealogical openness. At the center of the paper lies the thesis that the Gap, a central concept within the author’s research program, should not be understood as an original void or metaphysical nothingness, but as the consequence of irreversible differentiation itself. With every stabilization, a difference emerges that can never be fully closed between constituted world and lost openness. This difference generates Seinsverschiebung (ontological displacement), topological distortion, and Eigenzeit. Eigenzeit is understood here not as a subjective form of time perception or an alternative physical time dimension, but as the irreversible deformation of the space of possibility resulting from real world-binding. Against this background, the paper develops a critique of holographic, fractal, and purely information-based models of order, existence, and formal language. Recursive coherence does not emerge through identical repetition or from a hidden center, but from a continuous response movement to operative non-closure. This also has consequences for the understanding of simulation, archiving, and artificial intelligence, as well as for the understanding of art, animal communication, and other forms of morphogenetic translation. Simulation, information, or objectification reproduce states, but do not generate irreversible world-curvature and therefore remain ontologically worldless. In its final section, the paper applies this framework to neurodivergent cognition. Current models such as Predictive Processing, Hyper-Systemizing, or Veridical Mapping describe important aspects of autistic perception, yet usually remain within a shared ontology of stable object-worlds. The present paper instead proposes understanding neurodivergent cognition as a different form of world-binding. Detail-binding appears here not primarily as heightened object perception, but as the expression of a reduced smoothing in relation to negative topology. Autistic cognition is therefore understood neither as a deficient nor superior representation of the same world, but as a partially different stabilization of world under conditions of irreversible openness.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Embodied and Extended Cognition
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