The Observer and Spacetime: On the Existential Precondition of Physical Theory

Jayson Chen

This paper develops a theoretical framework in which existential experience emerges continuously from global quantum dynamics through the mediation of local observation. Within this framework, existentialism is reinterpreted as an effective experiential theory describing global determinism under conditions of local observation, rather than as an independent theoretical framework in competition with determinism. Consequently, once a continuous theoretical connection between determinism and existentialism has been established, the existence of free will is no longer a necessary precondition for evaluating their relationship. Free will remains open as an independent metaphysical problem, but its theoretical status is reconfigured from a foundational explanatory prerequisite to an independent object of philosophical inquiry.

André Costa

Tenzin Trepp

We challenge the common view that relativity and quantum formalisms compel a static block-universe ontology. Instead, we show that Existential Realism (ER) – can be formulated as an ontological extension of the specific physical models studied here, leaving empirical predictions unchanged so long as the added ER structure remains empirically idle. First, we clarify that the mathematical formalism of physics is neutral: one can impose a preferred foliation or an existence predicate without changing the equations. Second, we explicitly construct ER-compatible models for Minkowski spacetime (special relativity) and a finite-dimensional quantum system. In these Minkowski-spacetime and finite-dimensional quantum toy models, we show that the standard relativistic dynamical laws, Born-rule calculations, and unitary evolution between measurements are preserved, while the ER additions remain extra ontological structure. More precisely, we have constructed models that are empirically equivalent and dynamically identical while differing in their ontological assignments, thereby demonstrating underdetermination in a model-theoretic sense. We conclude that relativity and quantum theory, in the model presented here, do not logically force eternalism, leaving ER as a viable alternative ontology.

Nicholas A.M. Monk

Travis Bergen

This is not a theory about the world. It is the structure the world must have for a theory about it to be possible. The Information Manifold Model derives the necessary structural preconditions of observability itself. From three unavoidable preconditions (Incompleteness of Access, Non-Trivial Dynamics, Observation as Projection) the entire framework follows by necessity: the Informational Manifold, the Spectral Gap Field, the structural arrow of time, grounded quantum mechanics (including a minimal, testable deviation from the Born rule), emergent spacetime, cosmology, receiver architecture, neurotype attractors, and more. Every claim is explicitly labeled with its exact epistemic status (Structural Precondition, Axiom, Theorem, Proposition, Prediction, etc.). No overclaims. No hidden assumptions. Revised Edition (April 2026) — tightened epistemic distinctions, sharpened claim hierarchy, and full structural correspondence across scales.

E. Kolman