# Absence Is Also a Sign by Bryant McGill > “Absence is also a sign. A silence, a missing word, or an unspoken topic can carry as much meaning as anything said aloud, and every act of observation selects what counts by drawing a boundary around it. Attending to what goes unsaid and unobserved completes the picture.” > **— Bryant McGill**, *Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream (Jun 2016)* ## Sources and Context - **Authoritative developed source:** [[livestreams/Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream|Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream]] — the Reminder reproduces the complete marked quotation object without alteration. For this workflow, the developed livestream document is the source authority. - **Broadcast passage:** In the June 1, 2016 broadcast, roughly 00:21:30 to 00:27:00, the speaker moves from polarity as the source of energy (positive and negative, on and off, zeros and ones, good and bad; see [[wiki/Binary Opposition|binary opposition]]) to [[wiki/Semiotic Twins|semiotic twins]] in [[wiki/Linguistics|linguistics]], [[wiki/Epistemology|epistemology]], [[wiki/Ontology|ontology]], the meaning of meaning ([[wiki/Semantics|semantics]]), symbolic memory ([[wiki/Symbolic Representation|symbolic representation]]), [[wiki/Parse Tree|parse trees]], and control over [[wiki/Lexicon|lexicons]]. - **Conceptual context:** The point extends the broadcast's semiotics into absence and the boundary of observation, the theme developed in the journal entry [[journal/2023-06-12 - Silence and Non-Observation|Silence and Non-Observation]]. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Livestreams Collection|Livestreams Collection]] - **Article:** [[articles/Negative Epistemology and the Accumulation of Non-Knowledge for Survival (triptych)|Negative Epistemology and the Accumulation of Non-Knowledge for Survival]] - **Article:** [[blog/20261016 - The Irksome Zero Matter in Semiotics|The Irksome Zero Matter in Semiotics]] - **Livestream:** [[livestreams/Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream|Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Silence|Silence]] - [[wiki/Non-Observation|Non-Observation]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Absence is also a sign. A silence, a missing word, or an unspoken topic can carry as much meaning as anything said aloud, and every act of observation selects what counts by drawing a boundary around it. Attending to what goes unsaid and unobserved completes the picture.” — Bryant McGill, Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream (Jun 2016) https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-bryant-mcgill-absence-also-sign ```