Distributed Presence III: Ontological Unity in Physics Emergent Spacetime, Dynamics, and the Unification of Forces
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Abstract
This paper develops the ontological program of the Distributed Presence (DP) framework, according to which physical reality arises from a single primitive notion: the distribution and structural orientation of presence within state space. In this perspective, space is not a fundamental container but an emergent phenomenon produced by the large‑scale organization of neighborhood relations among numerous structural entities. As such relational networks grow in extent and coherence, their regularities generate an effectively continuous spatial manifold, so that physical space appears as the macroscopic expression of an underlying relational architecture.
Time is interpreted as the ordered sequence of redistributions of presence across this network. Structural entities repeatedly re‑actualize their presence, and the resulting changes in neighborhood relations provide the operational basis for temporal order and dynamical evolution. Matter and fields likewise emerge from this process: localized intensifications of presence deform the surrounding relational structure, giving rise to effects interpreted as mass, curvature, and physical fields. Motion corresponds to the progressive redistribution of presence within this evolving network.
The framework also proposes an algebraic stratification of interactions in terms of orientations of presence. The norm of presence is associated with gravitational phenomena, while complex, quaternionic, and octonionic orientations correspond respectively to electromagnetic, weak, and strong interaction structures. Within this scheme, gradients of complex phase naturally generate electromagnetic‑type gauge dynamics, while quaternionic orientations support the emergence of spinorial modes.
The aim of the paper is not to provide a complete physical theory but to articulate a coherent ontological architecture. By tracing space, time, matter, and interactions back to a common relational substrate, the DP framework offers a unified interpretative program intended to clarify the conceptual foundations of contemporary fundamental physics.
Keywords: Distributed Presence, Structural Ontology, Emergent Spacetime, Relational Ontology, QFT Interpretation, Structural Realism, Quaternionic and Octonionic Structures, Unification of Fundamental Forces, Unified Ontology, Ontological Unity
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- Preprint: 10.5281/zenodo.18712462 (DOI)
- Journal: 10.5281/zenodo.18359187 (DOI)
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