Towards a Discrete Gravitational Ontology – A Conceptual Framework for Unifying Quantum Mechanics and Relativity

Einstein taught us that gravity is the geometry of spacetime.
The present work suggests the converse: the geometry of spacetime is gravity — and gravity may be discrete.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework in which gravity constitutes the fabric of existence, not as a field within spacetime but as the substrate from which spacetime itself emerges. The continuum of spacetime and the probabilistic behavior of quantum mechanics are treated as large-scale statistical phenomena arising from an underlying discrete web of gravitational relations.

The Discrete Gravitational Ontology (DGO) introduces five postulates describing this web, through which geometry, matter, and energy emerge as local patterns of relational structure. A Navier–Stokes analogy illustrates how discrete micro-dynamics can yield smooth macroscopic geometry, and how matter–geometry correlations arise naturally within a single relational framework.

The goal is not to present a final theory, but to articulate an ontological hypothesis capable of guiding future mathematical, philosophical, and computational exploration.