TFNR - The Fundamental Nature of Reality
A few words about what I intend for the expression "The Fundamental Nature of Reality".
The single terms:
- Fundamental – What lies at the very basis of Existence, of Reality—something that transcends what we commonly observe and experience: Energy, Matter, Particles, Waves, Forces, Fields, etc. The Elementary Events produced by the Source of Reality are the primary expression of Existence.
- Nature - The type or essential characteristic of something.
- Reality - Everything that existed (the root of the present existence), exists (actual) and will exist (potential). Past, present and future.
All together:
- a description of what exists, what happens, how it happens (Ontology, Phenomenology and Dynamics) in the terms of the Action of the Primary Source of Reality,
- the core of this System of Knowledge—the Evolutionary Knowledge (Evolutionary Physics, Metaphysics, and Meta-metaphysics)—which studies Reality as a complex unitary phenomenon (Physical, Cognitive, and Metacognitive Reality),
- the focus of this research project, which aims to develop and promote a new vision of Reality and the Universe.
In summary...
As mentioned above, we can describe Reality as a unitary and articulated Process of Formation and, simultaneously, as the product of that Process: the Universe in evolution.
We can identify only one input to the Process—a pair of fundamental and elementary (sub-)Entities: a Force and a Field, the two aspects of the Source of Reality. A unique and fundamental force, which we call "the Fundamental Force", or "the Force", is responsible for all the work that creates Existence in its most fundamental Essence / Form—the "Elementary Action"—and "the Elementary Field" upon which the Force acts.
The output of this Process, empowered by the Force, is represented by Complexity—the emerging organization of Events into Processes, Structures, and Forms of increasing Complexity. This is the result of the incessant Evolution of Information.
Emergence is the fundamental dynamics through which the input leads to the output—to the Universe in evolution—the way Reality forms at every level of Existence. In short, Reality incessantly emerges from the organization of the Field under the ceaseless Action of the Force.
The next question is inevitable: what emerges—what exists? Briefly, we can say that Entities exist because they produce Existence, Events occur arising from Entities, and Relations evolve into the Essence/Form of Reality. Processes, in turn, can be considered Derived Entities—Sources of subsequent Events, structured by evolving Relations within unfolding Processes. And so on.
Reality and the Universe are complex "Derived" Entities resulting from the universal Process of Formation and construction—Derived Entities that express and manifest themselves (Events) and interact (Relations) to produce Phenomena, Processes. These Entities evolve from elementary levels to increasingly complex ones. The features and properties of that elementary level—an elementary unitary Field, incessantly animated by a fundamental, pervasive, and constant Force—determine the Form and dynamics of the entire evolving Universe.
In short, Reality is a process—an evolving, organized set of Events—that expresses itself in three dimensions: causal, spatial, and temporal. This organization, emerging from the Evolution of Relations among Events, defines the level of Complexity of Reality—whether the whole Reality or a specific Space-time domain.
In this sense, we can describe Reality and the Universe in terms of the Existence of Entities, the occurrence of Events (Creation), and the Evolution of Relations among Events:
- In terms of Entities and Existence, at the most elementary level, Reality is the Process of manifestation of the fundamental Entities emerging from the Source of Reality—the Fundamental Force and the Elementary Field—transmuting the possible into the actual, the Non-Existence (Nothingness) into Existence. At more complex levels, derived and structured Forces act upon derived and structured Fields, producing increasingly complex forms of Existence—bringing into being more complex Agents and Acted, Forces and Fields, in an incessant complexification of Reality.
- In terms of events and occurrences, Reality is the process of manifestation of Action—the transmutation of the Elementary Field by the "Action" of the Fundamental Force. At the fundamental—elementary—level, this manifests as variations of the elementary dynamics of the Field (Events), which in turn become new sources of causal action. Ultimately, Reality is the expression of the causal principle upon the Space-time aspects of Reality—the Action of the Force on the Field—and, in the domain of Complexity, the Derived Action of Derived Forces on Derived Fields. Through coherent sequences of Events, the history of Reality is constructed, and with it, the ever-changing world of possibilities—actual and potential. While Entities and Existence focus on Causes, Events and Existence highlight effects—effects of Causes, Actions of Forces.
- In terms of Relations and Essence—Form—Reality is the Process of Formation of new Information, In-Form-Action, new correlations among Events, new patterns of organization, and new networks of Relations emerging from the most elementary levels of Reality. It is a Process of structuring the Field, evolving toward increasing levels of Complexity.
Within this framework, the main key words are: Nothingness, Force, Intensity, Field, Constraint and resistance, Events, variation, mutation, Existence, Creation, Action, Relation, Information, organization, Evolution, Complexity, Structures, Forms, life, Universe, Reality.
Reality is a unitary process, where the Fundamental Force (the causal Agent) and the Elementary Field (the variational Acted, the spatial and temporal substrate of Existence and Essence / Form), together forming the Source of Reality, are the causal and the variational substrate of everything that exists. This unitary Process consists of two integrated and incessant sub-Processes: Creation and Evolution. The former, in a causal sense, produces the fundamental substance—the Action, the most elementary form of Existence—while the latter organizes this substance, evolving it into more complex Forms. We call this Information (Structures of Information and Forms), which represents the Essence—the Form—of Reality.
The Force (the active sub-Entity), acting upon the Field (the receptive sub-Entity), incessantly generating Elementary Events (tiny spatial fluctuations resonating around the Planck scale), creates Existence, the Elementary Action in its elementary forms: Perturbation, Translation, and Rotation—corresponding to the three fundamental Modes / Components in which Reality expresses itself: Variation (or mutation), Propagation, and Conservation. In other words, the internal interaction between the two fundamental sub-Entities through which the Source manifests itself—producing the Elementary Events and the Elementary Action—creates Existence. I call this sub-process: Creation.
The Elementary Events that compose the Action, under the incessant pressure of the Force, self-organize into increasingly complex Forms. This is Information. The further organization of Information forms the Physical Structures that compose the Physical Forms populating the Physical Universe—and, at more complex levels of Reality, Meta-Physical Forms emerge, representing the cognitive side of Reality. We call this sub-process: Evolution.
These two sub-processes constitute a unitary Process—the "Process of Formation of Physical Reality"—as part of a broader process (the Process of Formation of Universal Reality), which includes Meta-reality, or Meta-physical Cognitive Reality—the realm of Immaterial Forms produced by Living Beings—the most complex product of the Evolution of Physical Reality.
For descriptive purposes, we can distinguish between:
- Physical Reality – the realm of Physical Forms;
- Cognitive Reality (or Meta-Reality) – the realm of Metaphysical Forms, the representations of Reality that Living Beings incessantly create in their lives, through the incessant evolutionary exploration of the actual and the possible.
Meta-reality encompasses Meta-meta-reality—the domain of Metacognitive Processes, the object of study of Evolutionary Cognitive Sciences, which investigate the formation of representations of Reality and the ways in which Living Beings and the synthetic Finalistic Agents (Automata Forms, AI Systems) develop knowledge at every level of Complexity. In this paper, we will focus primarily on Physical Reality and the Physical Universe. Meta-reality will be addressed in a further paper, dedicated to the cognitive dimension of Reality.
In a nutshell, we can say that everything we know of the world is intrinsically metaphysical. Knowledge itself is a metaphysical phenomenon. We know the world through direct experience, which forms within us representations of an objective Reality that we can never fully contain. Everything that exists, in fact, happens. Knowledge assumes the memory of experience—the construction of models, organized sets of representations of objective Reality. Thus, while all that resides in our representations is metaphysical, the object of our cognitive representations (sensory, perceptive, emotional, rational, intellectual, cultural, etc.—in a crescendo of cognitive Complexity) is physical.
Among these objects, Structures, and metaphysical Forms, we find representations of Events, Structures, physical Forms—and also representations of representations. Again, in a crescendo of Complexity, this leads us to representations of our own cognitive activity—the meta-metaphysical, or metacognitive, side of Reality.
As stated above, we can consider the Universe as the current temporal section of Reality, the present—that is, the totality of what exists at the present moment. It encompasses all newly occurring Events and all products of the incessantly forming Reality: Information, InfoStructures, and Forms that, at each instant, propagate through Space-time from every single Event that has occurred in the past, in a relativistic sense. Nothing can exist outside the Universe—the Universe is everything that exists. Reality includes every existing form—material or immaterial, manifested or expressed, actual or potential. It is real and natural; it is part of Nature—everything that exists, regardless of its form.
We cannot directly experience the Fundamental Force, the Elementary Field, or the Elementary Action—the "world of the absolute". We are creatures of Information, composed of Relations that organize Events; we inhabit the "world of the relative", like every other Form that constitutes the Universe—networks of Relations among Elementary Events in the Field, and among more complex Events in the derived fields that characterize everyday Reality. We, along with the experimental instruments we construct, can only experience—can only "measure"—phenomena within the domain of Information: Events that concern Structures of Information, Relations which organize Events in the Field.
Thus, regarding the nature of the Fundamental Force, the Elementary Action, the dynamics of the Elementary Field, and so forth, we can only formulate inferences. We can conduct experiments to indirectly explore the elementary level of Reality—observing and measuring the effects generated by elementary Phenomena through the manifestations of Information and the Structures that Information forms.
As anticipated in the previous sections, the Fundamental Nature of Reality can be considered the core of a new System of Knowledge under construction, focused on Evolutionary Dynamics across all levels of Reality. Creation and Evolution—together forming the "Formation"—are Two aspects of the Agency of the Primary Source, two complementary modes of manifestation of the Force/Field pair, interacting in the incessant construction of Reality and of the Physical and Cognitive Universe.
In this chapter, we will attempt to outline the points of view and perspectives of observation—origin, domains, properties, dimensionalities and dimensions, levels, scales, aspects, principles—that allow us to more clearly identify the characteristics, properties and behaviors of Reality. The goal is to understand its global functioning and to better frame the various fields—currently described by fragmented and partially incompatible theories and models—within a more unitary, interconnected, and profound vision.
A few more words about this project of research:
- why
- to build a new vision of Reality, more unitary, broad, connected, profound to overcome the fragmentation of the current scientific panorama
- what
- TFNR
- Reality (Physical, Cognitive, Metacognitive Reality), Universe, Knowledge, what exists, what happens, how happens, etc
- how
- hypotheses
- formulate or resume hypotheses that can outline a research path that can lead us out of the growing crisis emerged in physics and cosmology
- new ways
- identify new ways, new conceptual and formal tools to push forward our knowledge of Reality
- next way
- contribute to the development of a new scientific paradigm, where simplicity, elegance, naturalness, mathematism are not targets, or essential tools, prerequisites for research, filters that direct its destiny.
- hypotheses
- who
- researchers with open mind, people who really want to know how Reality works (a real interest to understand how reality works)
A few more words about this research project: *why **to construct a new vision of Reality—more unitary, expansive, interconnected, and profound—to overcome the fragmentation of the current scientific landscape *what **TFNR **Reality (Physical, Cognitive, Metacognitive), Universe, Knowledge—what exists, what happens, how it happens, etc. *how **hypotheses ***formulate or revisit hypotheses that can outline a research trajectory capable of addressing the growing crisis in physics and cosmology **new ways ***identify new conceptual and formal tools to advance our understanding of Reality **next way ***contribute to the development of a new scientific paradigm—where simplicity, elegance, naturalness, and mathematism are not goals or essential tools, but rather prerequisites and filters that shape the destiny of research *who **researchers with open minds—individuals genuinely committed to understanding how Reality works (a true interest in grasping the functioning of Reality)
Links to the tables of contents of TFNR Paper
