Foundations of the Mutual Information Density Hypothesis - Ontology, Structural Commitments, and Scope

This paper provides the unified ontological foundation for the Mutual Information Density Hypothesis (MIDH) series. It consolidates and clarifies the structural commitments underlying five prior papers on entity persistence, meta-evolution of physical laws, cosmic acceleration, quantum entanglement, and chronology-first ontology.

The central purpose is to close an interpretive ambiguity: MIDH is a structure-first framework, not a quantum-first one. The paper explicitly states that classicality is ontologically real – not an epistemic illusion, not a perspectival slice of a branching multiverse, not a "for all practical purposes" approximation. Quantum and classical behaviors are different structural phases of the same underlying correlation dynamics, distinguished by mutual information density and meta-coupling strength.

The paper introduces the core primitives (correlation, chronology, metas), formalizes the viability law (R = D_int / D_env ≥ κ), and positions MIDH relative to existing interpretations of quantum mechanics. A dedicated section explicitly rules out common misreadings: not Everettian, not QBist, not Bohmian, not retrocausal, not consciousness-dependent, not decoherence-only.

Intended as a reference document for readers engaging with any paper in the MIDH series, it establishes the shared conceptual backbone and identifies open research questions including Born rule derivation, meta-transition dynamics, and mathematical formalization.