This work proposes a conceptual framework linking the emergence of time in quantum gravity with the emergence of social time through a shared logical foundation. In physics, loop quantum gravity and causal set theory demonstrate the absence of time at the fundamental level. Extending this perspective to social reality through Q-methodology, the study operationalizes quantum-like logical features — contextuality, non-commutativity, superposition, and collapse — in the analysis of subjectivity. Drawing on Sorkin’s anhomomorphic logic, we identify a structural isomorphism between physical and social informational processes. The framework advances three empirically testable predictions concerning order effects in Q-sorting, interference patterns in meaning evaluations, and potential violations of Bell-type inequalities in social correlations. It argues that social time emerges from communicative networks rather than individual consciousness, addressing objections related to decoherence, category errors, and the transition from individual to collective phenomena. Acknowledging alternative formalisms (GTR, HMI) and unresolved empirical questions, the paper positions its approach as a form of cautious realism — a falsifiable hypothesis with concrete tests.
This work proposes a conceptual framework linking the emergence of time in quantum gravity with the emergence of social time through a shared logical foundation. In physics, loop quantum gravity and causal set theory demonstrate the absence of time at the fundamental level. Extending this perspective to social reality through Q-methodology, the study operationalizes quantum-like logical features — contextuality, non-commutativity, superposition, and collapse — in the analysis of subjectivity. Drawing on Sorkin’s anhomomorphic logic, we identify a structural isomorphism between physical and social informational processes. The framework advances three empirically testable predictions concerning order effects in Q-sorting, interference patterns in meaning evaluations, and potential violations of Bell-type inequalities in social correlations. It argues that social time emerges from communicative networks rather than individual consciousness, addressing objections related to decoherence, category errors, and the transition from individual to collective phenomena. Acknowledging alternative formalisms (GTR, HMI) and unresolved empirical questions, the paper positions its approach as a form of cautious realism — a falsifiable hypothesis with concrete tests.
This working paper proposes a three-level emergent architecture of social time, describing the transition from timeless informational potentiality through a subjective dimension to collective temporality. Drawing upon Sorkin's anhomomorphic logic and Q-methodology, we argue that social time arises not through the summation of individual states (the classical model), but through the coherence of contextual subjective collapses (the non-classical model). Each level—Information, Measurement/Subjectivity, and Social Time—represents a distinct ontological and logical regime, where transitions are governed by acts of measurement and collective synchronisation. This framework challenges the additive-commutative assumptions of classical sociology, positing social temporality as an emergent effect of non-local, context-dependent interactions. The paper operationalises key sociological concepts—Bourdieu's habitus, Giddens's structuration, and Emirbayer & Mische's temporal agency—through the three-level architecture, demonstrating that these are different manifestations of a single fundamental process: the decoherence of the social. Empirical analysis of Russian public opinion dynamics during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine reveals systematic anomalies in classical explanations (rally effect, fear of repression, propaganda), which are predicted a priori by the quantum coherence model. The paper proposes specific empirical tests for discriminating between classical and non-classical models, including violations of Bell-CHSH inequalities in social correlations. This work is part of a broader research programme connecting the emergence of time in quantum gravity with the emergence of social time through a common logical foundation.
We propose the Phase-Ordering Time Theory (POTT), which reframes time as an index of internal phase alignment rather than an external coordinate. Across neuroscience, quantum measurement, cognition, AI systems, and large-scale social dynamics, we show that events consistently emerge when underlying micro-scale phase structures converge toward an observer-dependent threshold. Precursor phenomena—such as the readiness potential in motor initiation, interference visibility in quantum systems, semantic anticipation in language, predictive intuition, and civilizational “early tremors”—share a common structure: rapid increases in the phase-ordering functional𝑆(𝑡) prior to collapse-like transitions.Within this framework, thearrow of time arises not from entropy increase but from the irreversibility of phase ordering. This shift resolves long-standing paradoxes linking thermodynamic asymmetry, consciousness timing(e.g., Libet-typeexperiments),and measurement-induced collapse in quantum mechanics. POTT unifies these disparate domains by describing time as the progression from disordered, low-alignment configurations toward structured, high-alignment states relative to an observer’s internal phase field.We formalize this perspective by defining a measurable phase-ordering functional, demonstrating its operational equivalents across domains—PLV signals in neuroscience, interference visibility in quantum optics, activation-phase coherence in AI models, and synchronization metrics in social systems. The theory yields concrete, falsifiable predictions, including identifiable precursor dynamics corresponding to 𝑑𝑆/𝑑𝑡 and collapse events occurring sharply once 𝑆(𝑡) exceeds a critical threshold 𝑆𝑐.By interpreting time, consciousness, decision-making, and observation as manifestations of a single alignment process, POTT provides an integrated mathematical and philosophical account of temporal structure that is empirically testable and cross-disciplinary. This framework suggests that ordering—not entropy—forms the fundamental engine behind temporal asymmetry, event formation, and the emergence of interpretable reality.
Abstract, This paper introduces the 0 → 1 hypothesis, a conceptual framework in which physical events and their relational ordering are treated as potentially more fundamental than macroscopic time. Rather than assuming time to be a universally flowing background parameter, the framework begins with distinguishable physical states, transitions between states, and causal or relational ordering among events. The notation 0 → 1 is used as a conceptual shorthand for physical becoming; it does not imply binary computation, creation from nothing, wave-function collapse, or a universal Planck-time clock. The central question is whether familiar temporal quantities can emerge from a more fundamental relational structure while remaining compatible with relativistic causal structure, quantum theory, and the thermodynamic arrow of time. A minimal mathematical scaffold is proposed in terms of an event set, a causal partial order, state transitions, and a coarse-grained duration functional. The framework is compared with relational time, the Page–Wootters mechanism, and causal-set approaches. At its present stage, the 0 → 1 hypothesis is a conceptual research framework rather than a complete physical theory. The paper therefore identifies the mathematical and empirical requirements that would be necessary for the hypothesis to become falsifiable and experimentally distinguishable from existing approaches.
Mathematical and methodological appendices to the theoretical framework of the three-level emergent architecture of social time. Includes:- Appendix A: Strategy for empirical validation- Appendix B: Formal mathematical description- Appendix C: Axiomatic block of the meta-language- Appendix D: Operator formalism of order effects and contextuality The appendices formalize key concepts: contextuality (Level 1), measurement as ontological collapse (Level 2), and coherence as emergent social temporality (Level 3).
This paper proposes a conceptual reinterpretation of the wave–particle duality by introducing a relational and temporally emergent perspective on measurement and physical properties. Instead of treating waves and particles as competing ontological categories, the study argues that they represent different relational realizations of the same underlying process. Wave descriptions capture relational structures extending across time and space, while particle descriptions correspond to localized events generated through temporally fixing measurement interactions. By reframing measurement as a form of temporal coordination rather than passive observation, the article suggests that the apparent paradox of wave–particle duality emerges from classical assumptions about objects and time. The proposed framework situates quantum phenomena within a broader relational ontology in which time, events, and structures arise through interaction. This perspective aims to clarify conceptual foundations of quantum theory without modifying its formalism, while also highlighting parallels between coordination processes in physical, biological, and social systems.
This paper develops an extension of Existential Realism, a philosophical framework that distinguishes existence (what concretely is in the present moment) from reality (the broader causal–structural domain that includes past events, causal relations, informational traces, and structured future possibilities that are real but not presently existent). We synthesize core ideas from the original Existential Realism framework—ontological emergence, entanglement, temporal asymmetry, dimensional collapse, and the notion of a “dimensionless source”—and push them into new conceptual terrain. Time is placed at the heart of ontology: the present moment is the locus of existence, continually generating new actuality from prior reality. Past and future are real (with causal efficacy and structure) yet lack present existence. We explore how this two-tiered temporal ontology can accommodate key features of modern physics and metaphysics. In particular, we argue that ontological emergence at each moment provides a genuine arrow of time and a solution to the puzzle of how determinate events arise from an indeterminate backdrop. Quantum entanglement and nonlocal correlations, far from undermining a temporally oriented realism, instead hint at a deeper layer of unity “beneath” spacetime—a layer we articulate as a dimensionless source of reality. The dimensionless source is defined as a non-spatiotemporal relational structure encoding the informational constraints under which spatiotemporal events emerge through sequential actualization. It contains the informational constraints and lawful relations governing the generation of successive present states of the universe. We propose that spacetime and its separations emerge from this atemporal, aspatial ground, such that phenomena like entanglement and wavefunction collapse reveal the traces of a more fundamental order where spatial distance and temporal succession are secondary. Throughout, we connect these ideas to contemporary debates in quantum foundations (e.g. the measurement problem and objective collapse theories), philosophy of time (presentism, eternalism, and the reality of becoming), and speculative metaphysics (structural realism and process ontology). The result is a comprehensive, present-centered realist ontology that aims to reconcile the lived reality of time’s flow with the insights of modern physics, suggesting new avenues for understanding causality, identity, and agency in a dynamic universe.