Relative Information at the Foundation of Physics

Claudio Garola

Greco, Giuseppe Junior

This paper introduces the Foundations of Informational State Dynamics (ISD), a minimal observer-relative framework in which physical and cognitive states are described as informational configurations constrained by evidence accessibility and record stability. Within ISD, state transitions correspond to informational conditioning rather than intrinsic physical dynamics, providing a unified account of definite outcomes, temporal ordering, and effective stabilization across observer-dependent phenomena. The framework is empirically neutral and fully compatible with standard physical theories, offering a foundational informational substrate that integrates quantum measurement, nonlocal correlations, and observer-relative descriptions without modifying the formalism of quantum mechanics.

Carlo Rovelli C

Shannon's notion of relative information between two physical systems can function as foundation for statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics, without referring to subjectivism or idealism. It can also represent a key missing element in the foundation of the naturalistic picture of the world, providing the conceptual tool for dealing with its apparent limitations. I comment on the relation between these ideas and Democritus.

Giacomo Mauro D’Ariano

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Holger Lyre, Thomas Görnitz

Waldemar Superson

GTi (Generative Theory of ilons) is presented as a foundational generative ontology underlying relational, structural, informational, and categorical approaches in modern physics. The theory replaces substance‑based primitives with ilons—abstract generative units related through morphisms in a small category. Informational and structural configurations ariseas colimits of realized diagrams, and a family of functorial invariants Θ,S,k,λ,χ captures structural properties such as distinction, coherence, stability, and topological class. GTi is not a physical theory but a pre‑relational substrate from which multiple higher‑level frameworks may emerge. It provides a deeper generative layer beneath relational quantum mechanics (Rovelli), informational ontologies such as Wheeler’s “it from bit,” categorical physics (Baez), categorical quantum mechanics (Abramsky–Coecke), ontic structural realism (Ladyman & Ross), and geometric or spinorial programs (Penrose). GTi also offers a structural foundation compatible with spectral and distinction‑based approaches. The article develops the mathematical foundations of GTi, including the generative category I, the realization functor G:I→Set, the role of diagrams and colimits in emergent structure, and the definition of structural invariants. GTi is proposedas a candidate for the deepest ontological layer beneath relational physics and other contemporary foundational programs. Author: Waldemar Superson