Distributed Presence Research Program (DP) is an interdisciplinary foundational research program investigating whether physical reality can be more coherently understood in terms of distributed, relational, and phase-structured presence rather than as a collection of fundamentally isolated entities. The program explores the possibility that mass, charge, localization, probability, field structure, quantum behavior, and spacetime organization may be interpreted as emergent modes of response, stabilization, and relational configuration within a deeper ontology of distributed presence. A central aim of the program is to develop an ontological unity in physics by articulating a framework in which the interpretation of physical properties, the ontology of fields, the status of probability, and the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics can be approached within a common relational structure. In particular, the DP Research Program addresses: the ontology of distributed presence, the emergence of localization, the reinterpretation of mass and charge, phase and response structures, the ontological interpretation of probability, the interpretation of quantum mechanics, spacetime emergence, and the search for ontological unity across physical theory. Rather than presenting itself as a completed physical theory, DP develops a conceptual and exploratory formal framework connecting philosophy of physics, metaphysics of science, quantum foundations, field-theoretic interpretation, and ontological modeling. The program aims to function as an open research platform for conceptual clarification, formal development, and interdisciplinary dialogue on the foundations and unity of physical reality.
Distributed Presence Research Program (DP) is an interdisciplinary foundational research program investigating whether physical reality can be more coherently understood in terms of distributed, relational, and phase-structured presence rather than as a collection of fundamentally isolated entities. The program explores the possibility that mass, charge, localization, probability, field structure, quantum behavior, and spacetime organization may be interpreted as emergent modes of response, stabilization, and relational configuration within a deeper ontology of distributed presence. A central aim of the program is to develop an ontological unity in physics by articulating a framework in which the interpretation of physical properties, the ontology of fields, the status of probability, and the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics can be approached within a common relational structure. In particular, the DP Research Program addresses: the ontology of distributed presence, the emergence of localization, the reinterpretation of mass and charge, phase and response structures, the ontological interpretation of probability, the interpretation of quantum mechanics, spacetime emergence, and the search for ontological unity across physical theory. Rather than presenting itself as a completed physical theory, DP develops a conceptual and exploratory formal framework connecting philosophy of physics, metaphysics of science, quantum foundations, field-theoretic interpretation, and ontological modeling. The program aims to function as an open research platform for conceptual clarification, formal development, and interdisciplinary dialogue on the foundations and unity of physical reality.
Abstract Despite its empirical success, quantum mechanics continues to provoke foundational debates concerning the nature of probability, the ontological status of the quantum state, and the mechanism of measurement. [1] This work introduces Distributed Presence (DP) as a structural ontological framework that addresses these issues by reinterpreting quantum phenomena in terms of a system’s distributed mode of existence across its state space. Crucially, this distribution is modal rather than spatial: it concerns how a system is present across possible states, not how it is extended in physical space. Within the DP framework, a quantum system is not assumed to occupy a definite state prior to interaction. Instead, its fundamental mode of existence is an ontologically distributed presence, understood as a structural feature of reality rather than a reflection of epistemic uncertainty. From this standpoint, probability is not introduced as a primitive postulate but emerges operationally from the geometry of presence, yielding a structural derivation of the Born rule. Core quantum phenomena (including superposition, wave–particle duality, state reduction, and entanglement) are recast as different manifestations of a single underlying principle: the modal distribution, reconfiguration, and non‑separability of presence. Entanglement corresponds to the non‑factorizability of presence fractions over a composite state space, while non‑local correlations are interpreted as consequences of shared modal structure rather than dynamical signal transmission, fully consistent with relativistic causality. The framework is developed within a Euclidean geometric setting chosen to prioritize ontological clarity, without altering the predictive formalism of standard quantum mechanics or its Hilbert‑space representation. By grounding randomness, probability, and quantum behavior in the notion of modal distributed presence, DP offers a coherent foundational program that bridges the conceptual gap between unitary evolution and definite outcomes, providing an alternative to both epistemic interpretations and wave‑function realism.
Abstract This paper develops a metaphysical interpretation of quantum probability under the title Distributed Presence (DP). The central claim is that quantum probabilities should not be understood as measures of ignorance, nor merely as formal devices for predicting measurement outcomes, but as expressions of an objective mode of being: a system’s structured distribution of presence across mutually available channels of realization. On this view, a quantum system prior to measurement is neither fully actual in one determinate outcome nor reducible to a set of hidden definite properties. Rather, it exists in a non-binary mode, articulated by normalized presence fractions associated with the possible outcomes defined by a given interaction context. The Born rule is accordingly not replaced, but reinterpreted: the standard probability assignment is read as the operational expression of an underlying ontological distribution. The paper argues that this framework provides a unified reading of several familiar quantum features. Superposition is understood as a real distribution of presence rather than as epistemic indeterminacy; measurement is interpreted as single-channel actualization rather than as the physical destruction of alternatives; wave-particle duality is recast as the relation between distributed structure and localized realization; and quantum randomness is treated as intrinsic yet structurally constrained. The proposal remains fully compatible with the standard Hilbert-space formalism and introduces no hidden variables, additional collapse dynamics, or many-world branching. Its aim is interpretive rather than revisionary. Beyond its relevance to the foundations of quantum theory, DP is advanced as a contribution to the ontology of probability more broadly. It seeks to show how probability may be objective, physically meaningful, and ontologically basic without collapsing into determinism on the one hand or epistemicism on the other. In that sense, the paper offers a realist, single-world, structurally articulated account of quantum chance.
Abstract This paper develops the second stage of the Distributed Presence (DP) programme by extending the minimal framework of DP I into a more explicit ontological architecture. Its aim is not to introduce a new dynamics or a competing predictive formalism, but to clarify how several central features of quantum theory may be understood within a pre-dynamical structural ontology. The analysis begins by sharpening the distinction between structural determination and Realization. A system is determined by its admissible channels of presence and their associated presence fractions, whereas measurement is interpreted as single-channel Realization rather than collapse. On this view, the question of why one channel is realised rather than another is not answered by hidden variables or selection dynamics; within DP, it has no further structural referent. The paper then introduces minterms as the finest ontological units of distributed presence: complete signed patterns over state space. Observable quantities arise through sign-blind coarse-graining of this underlying structure. This framework offers a structural basis for understanding operational indistinguishability, structural multiplicity, and the restricted simultaneous articulation of incompatible observables. Spin is correspondingly reinterpreted as a topological closure invariant of signed presence, rather than as literal rotation or intrinsic dynamical angular momentum. Finally, Degeneracy is understood as the effective trace of unresolved structural multiplicity. Hilbert space remains fully adequate at the empirical level, but is treated here as a compressed representation of a deeper signed structural layer. The paper closes by locating DP in relation to major foundational approaches and by stating its present limitations and future tasks.
Abstract This paper develops Distributed Presence (DP) as a discrete ontological framework for the structural reconstruction of core features usually represented within nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. Rather than taking the wave function, Hilbert space, or collapse postulates as fundamental, DP begins from the claim that a physical object possesses ontological presence distributed over a context-dependent set of admissible channels. Actualization is treated as a primitive stochastic event through which one admissible channel becomes manifest. Within this framework, a quantum particle and a die are structurally comparable as objects of manifestation: in both cases, the object’s identity is not exhausted by any single realized outcome, even though the quantum case requires a richer representational structure. On this basis, the paper argues that complex Hilbert space functions as a minimal manifestation-level encoding of distributed presence together with retained relational structure. The Born rule is reconstructed as a cross-layer identity between phenomenal probability and normalized structural presence fraction, while the Schrödinger form is interpreted as an effective law of pre-actualization redistribution. Measurement is correspondingly reframed as context-driven actualization followed by record stabilization. For composite systems, DP understands entanglement as the nonfactorizability of joint distributed presence, while operational no-signaling is expressed through invariance of local marginal presence fractions under remote contextual variation. The contribution of the paper is therefore ontological and reconstructive, not the proposal of a new empirical formalism. DP offers a single-world realist framework for understanding why central quantum structures take the form they do, while leaving the formalization of actualization, composite dynamics, and the derivation of physical constants for future research.
The Relational Physics Manifesto introduces a new ontological framework for understanding physical reality by replacing object‑based metaphysics with a structure‑first, continuity‑driven model of existence. It argues that the fundamental constituents of the universe are not particles or fields, but relational configurations shaped by continuity, identity, collapse, and curvature. The manifesto outlines how classical and quantum phenomena emerge from these structural primitives, critiques the limitations of object ontology, and proposes a unified relational manifold as the foundation for future theoretical development. Positioned at the intersection of physics and metaphysics, the manifesto serves as a conceptual declaration of a new direction for foundational research, offering a coherent structural alternative to traditional assumptions while inviting further mathematical formalization.
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.