A Minimalist Ontology of Universes and Meta-Space

This paper develops a minimalist, non-mechanistic ontology for universes and meta-space. Beginning from the only domain available to observation—our own universe—it derives a set of internal epistemic constraints grounded in information stability, entropy, and the limits of inference. These constraints establish the internal Wittgenstein boundary: the point beyond which internal observers cannot meaningfully speak. Building on this, the paper rejects all unjustified structure in external ontology, including ordering, hierarchy, adjacency, similarity metrics, embedding, meta-geometry, and meta-time.

From this disciplined foundation, the paper defines the minimal necessary and sufficient conditions for a universe: a commencement configuration, internal extent, and internal coherence. No further structure—laws, time, observers, causality, or dimensionality—is required. Universes so defined coexist without relation, and existence is treated as a meta-level predicate rather than an internal property.

The framework also identifies an external Wittgenstein boundary: entities in meta-space that fail the minimal criteria for universes cannot be conceptualised or described. “Not-a-universe” is an accurate but empty label.

The result is a coherent, structurally disciplined ontology that avoids metaphysical inflation and provides a clean alternative to mechanism-laden multiverse models. It offers a foundation for discussing universes, coexistence, and meta-space without introducing assumptions that cannot be justified from first principles.