#stratum

This character is a combination of 尸 the corpse radical, and 曾/曽 a non-general use character now used to express “formerly,” but originally meaning “build up.” Here 尸 is a simplification of 屋 building. 曽 is a phonetic element signaling the on’yomi, while also lending its own meaning of “build up / accumulate.” Together, this gives “built up building, a reference to a two-story building. By association, it came to mean “story / layer / stratum / etc.” over time.

MUB Design, “Stratum”

There is no biosphere or noosphere, but everywhere the same Mechanosphere. If one begins by considering the strata in themselves, it cannot be said that one is less organized than another. This even applies to a stratum serving as a substratum: there is no fixed order, and one stratum can serve directly as a substratum for another without the intermediaries one would expect there to be from the standpoint of stages and degrees (for example, microphysical sectors can serve as an immediate substratum for organic phenomena). Or the apparent order can be reversed, with cultural or technical phenomena providing a fertile soil, a good soup, for the development of insects, bacteria, germs, or even particles.