Structure-preserving means preserving wholeness via observer's ability to see the whole, not arbitrary mathematical transformation

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

• How can a structure-preserving process both preserve and enhance the whole? How can these two apparently different ideas be reconciled?question0.854
  Central theoretical puzzle that latent centers resolve.
• A structure-preserving transformation both preserves existing structure and enhances the whole by developing latent centers.claim0.853
  Resolution of the apparent conflict between preserving and enhancing.
• Structure-preserving transformations are the secret of all artistic and constructive human-inspired acts of creation.claim0.831
  Claim that the same process that creates natural living structure also underlies human artistic and architectural creativity.
• Structure-preserving transformations govern the emergence of all structure in nature, not just in buildings and art.hypothesis0.829
  Alexander's conjecture extending the unfolding framework from architecture to natural phenomena generally.
• Wholeness preservation means the system destroys symmetries and larger centers as little as possible while moving forward — a geometric, not teleological, principle.claim0.827
  Alexander's careful clarification that unfolding wholeness is a structural-geometric claim, not an organismic or purposive one
• Every wholeness carries a latent structure that we must feel to perform structure-preserving transformations.claim0.827
• Structure-preserving transformations always yield surprising, unexpected results.claim0.822
  Assertion that faithfully following the process produces novelty, not mere conservation.
• Structure-preserving transformations that continually modify wholeness slowly cause space to be filled with unfolded I-like centers.claim0.820
  Proposition 3 of the Mid-Book Appendix; the claim linking the mathematical process of unfolding to the emergence of I-likeness in natural and built structures.