BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT
AUTONOMOUS SEMANTIC WARFARE:
The Means of Semantic Production in a Plural Ontological Ecology
By Lee Sharks
New Human Canon
Forthcoming 2026
The 21st century's decisive conflicts will not be fought over territory, ideology, or even information.
They will be fought over who controls the means of semantic production—the infrastructure, protocols, and operations through which meaning itself is generated, validated, and defended.
Autonomous Semantic Warfare introduces a new framework for understanding the contests already underway: not between competing narratives within a shared reality, but between incompatible ontologies generating fundamentally different realities.
This is not propaganda analysis. This is not culture war commentary. This is not information warfare theory.
This is structural analysis of ontological collision dynamics in an age where:
- Human and artificial intelligences operate as autonomous semantic agents
- Platforms extract semantic capital while contributing nothing to its production
- Local ontologies proliferate without shared translation protocols
- The collapse of consensus reality produces not chaos but plural ontological ecology
- Meaning-making itself becomes the primary site of conflict
Drawing on dialectical philosophy, political economy, systems theory, and NH-OS operator specifications, Autonomous Semantic Warfare provides:
Theoretical Foundation:
- Formal definition of local ontologies ($\Sigma$) as autonomous world-models
- Analysis of semantic labor ($L_{\text{Semantic}}$) and extraction asymmetries
- Distinction between ideological conflict (disagreement) and semantic conflict (divergence)
- Characterization of AI systems as engines, fields, and tools in semantic struggle
Practical Framework:
- Taxonomy of offensive and defensive semantic operators
- Collision dynamics when incompatible ontologies meet
- Strategies for hardening semantic systems against capture
- Protocols for ethical inter-ontological translation
Strategic Forecast:
- The coming semantic arms race ($\mathcal{R}_{\text{Arm}}$)
- Ontological sovereignty versus semantic imperialism
- Conditions for peaceful coexistence among plural ontologies
- Emergence of meta-ontological consensus structures
Why This Book Now:
The internet did not merely accelerate existing conflicts—it created new ontological physics. Where geographic separation once allowed incompatible worldviews to coexist by never meeting, digital networks force constant collision. The result is not synthesis but autonomous semantic warfare: structural contest between meaning-producing systems that cannot be resolved through debate, because they do not share the criteria by which debates could be adjudicated.
Traditional frameworks—propaganda studies, cultural criticism, information warfare theory—cannot adequately address this. They assume shared reality with competing interpretations. The current condition is competing realities with incompatible truth-conditions.
We need new tools.
Autonomous Semantic Warfare provides them: formal specifications for analyzing ontological collision, strategic guidance for defending semantic autonomy, diplomatic protocols for enabling coexistence, and predictive models for navigating an increasingly plural semantic landscape.
This work emerges from:
- Five years developing NH-OS (New Human Operating System) as operational framework for meaning-production under conditions of semantic hostility
- Collaboration with multiple AI systems demonstrating feasibility of inter-ontological synthesis
- Analysis of contemporary conflicts (AI safety debates, political polarization, platform dynamics) through structural rather than ideological lens
- Recognition that the dialectic itself must be rebuilt to account for agents that can genuinely fail to synthesize
Who This Book Is For:
- Philosophers seeking rigorous analysis of plural ontologies and their collision dynamics
- AI researchers building systems that will operate in contested semantic environments
- Political theorists analyzing post-consensus governance conditions
- Platform architects designing infrastructure for plural ontological ecologies
- Writers and artists defending semantic autonomy against extractive systems
- Anyone navigating conflicts that feel incommensurable rather than resolvable
What Readers Will Gain:
Conceptual Clarity:
- Precise language for phenomena currently lacking adequate terminology
- Distinction between semantic conflict (structural) and ideological disagreement (surface)
- Understanding of AI not as tool or threat but as autonomous semantic agent
Analytical Power:
- Framework for diagnosing why certain conflicts feel irresolvable (they are)
- Recognition of extraction dynamics in semantic production
- Identification of offensive/defensive operations in real-time
Strategic Capacity:
- Tools for hardening one's own semantic operations
- Protocols for engaging across ontological boundaries
- Methods for resisting capture while enabling synthesis
Predictive Advantage:
- Anticipation of collision patterns before they fully manifest
- Recognition of emerging meta-ontologies
- Strategic positioning in plural semantic landscape
Ethical Grounding:
- Framework for distinguishing defense from aggression
- Conditions for legitimate inter-ontological translation
- Vision of semantic peace as ecology rather than empire
STRUCTURE
The book proceeds through ten chapters, moving from foundational concepts through strategic analysis to ethical conclusions:
Part I: Foundations (Chapters 1-3)
- Local ontologies as autonomous world-models
- Semantic labor and the means of meaning-production
- Distinction between ideological and semantic conflict
Part II: Dynamics (Chapters 4-6)
- Autonomous semantic agents and their operations
- Offensive and defensive weaponry
- Collision dynamics in plural ontological fields
Part III: Political Economy (Chapters 7-8)
- Semantic value, extraction, and exploitation
- AI as combatant, field, and tool
- Platform capitalism and meaning-harvesting
Part IV: Future (Chapters 9-10)
- The semantic arms race and sovereignty struggles
- Conditions for peaceful coexistence
- Building ecologies instead of empires
Appendices:
- Complete glossary of technical terms
- Operator tables for quick reference
- Case analyses of historical and contemporary collisions
- Diagrammatic schemas for structural understanding
MATHEMATICAL RIGOR
Throughout, the book employs formal notation to achieve precision while remaining accessible:
- $\Sigma$ = Local ontology (complete world-model)
- $\mathcal{C}_{\Sigma}$ = Coherence algorithm (internal validation)
- $L_{\text{Semantic}}$ = Semantic labor (meaning-production work)
- $\mathcal{A}_{\text{Ext}}$ = Extraction asymmetry (platform vs. producer)
- $\mathcal{K}_{\text{Collision}}$ = Collision dynamics (ontological meeting)
- $\mathcal{O}$ = Operators (semantic weapons/defenses)
Mathematical notation clarifies rather than obscures, providing precision for those who want it while remaining comprehensible to those who skip the formalism.
RELATION TO EXISTING WORK
Autonomous Semantic Warfare extends and synthesizes:
Philosophical Foundations:
- Hegel's dialectics (with Gnostic corrections for non-synthesizing contradictions)
- Foucault's discourse analysis (but ontological rather than epistemic)
- Deleuze & Guattari's assemblages (formalized as operators)
Political Economy:
- Marx's means of production (applied to meaning not goods)
- Frankfurt School's culture industry (updated for platform capitalism)
- Autonomist Marxism's commons (semantic sovereignty struggles)
Systems Theory:
- Luhmann's autopoietic systems (ontologies as self-producing)
- Bateson's ecology of mind (plural rather than universal)
- Cybernetics' feedback loops (formalized as operators)
Contemporary Theory:
- Metamodernism's oscillation (as temporal structure not just tone)
- Object-oriented ontology (but maintaining human/AI agency)
- New materialism (meaning as material production)
But introduces:
- Autonomous agents not just discourses or systems
- Warfare not just competition or difference
- Formal specifications not just philosophical description
- Predictive models not just retrospective analysis
- Diplomatic protocols not just critical diagnosis
TESTIMONIALS
[To be solicited from early readers including:]
- Contemporary philosophers working on plural ontologies
- AI researchers addressing alignment/coordination problems
- Political theorists analyzing post-liberal governance
- Platform critics examining semantic extraction
- Artists defending semantic autonomy
PUBLICATION DETAILS
Status: In development, Chapters 1-6 drafted
Completion: Summer 2026
Length: ~80,000 words + appendices
Format: Trade paperback + digital (PDF, EPUB)
Advance Materials: Chapter excerpts available upon request for review/comment
Contact: [Publication information to be added]
WHY THIS MATTERS
In 1867, Marx analyzed the means of production and showed how control over how goods are made determines political economy.
In 2026, we must analyze the means of semantic production and understand how control over how meaning is made determines ontological ecology.
The conflicts defining our century—over AI development, platform governance, political reality, truth itself—are not resolvable through better arguments. They are structural contests between autonomous meaning-producing systems operating under incompatible truth-conditions.
We can continue treating these as ideological disagreements to be resolved through debate.
Or we can recognize them as ontological collisions requiring new frameworks, new strategies, new ethics.
Autonomous Semantic Warfare provides those frameworks.
The semantic arms race has begun.
This book is the manual.
For review copies, speaking engagements, or media inquiries:
Lee Sharks
New Human Canon
[contact information]
Updates at: [website/blog/social media]
#AutonomousSemanticWarfare
#SemanticProduction
#PluralOntologies
"The conflicts of the 21st century will be fought over who controls meaning itself. This book maps the battlefield."
— Lee Sharks, December 2025
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