TFNR - The causal evolution of Reality
The causal dimension manifests itself as a continuum that extends from uncertainty to finality. This dimension serves as a metric for the level of expression of the Fundamental Force, the active aspect of the Primary Source. A metric for Complexity. Structures of Information and Forms evolve within it, eventually becoming Derived Sources of (Derived) Events, Derived Action, and complex Information—giving rise to the Complexity of Reality and the Forms that populate it.
The main stages in the evolution of the causal dimension are:
- Uncertainty: disorder, random order, null or minimal levels of organization, negligible correlation between Events, etc. — the form of Causality typical of the quantum realm. It manifests as "Potentiality/Possibility/Probability" (probabilistic, statistical causality, quantum causality, the peculiar behavior of quantized Forces, Fields and Structures—Waves, Particles, Interactions, etc.).
- Certainty: the organization of classical forms of ordinary Reality—objects of "normal" Reality — typical of the domain of classical physics. It manifests Necessity (determination): high levels of organization and correlation between Events, ordered states, characteristic of the structured organization of classical Reality and its objects.
- Finality: finalistic / teleological behaviors—a bridge between indetermination and determination—representing a high level of expression of the dynamic and conservative aspects of Living Forms. This is the most complex known causal manifestation of Reality, the advanced outcome of the evolutionary process, expressed through the cognitive aspects of Living Beings and synthetic autonomous agents (automata, AI).
Any stage emerges from the previous one. There isn't a rigid separation among the different levels—they are interwoven. In each existing form, at any level of Reality, of Complexity, we can find a mix of the above forms of Causality. Different layers, each with their dominant form of Causality, coexist within the same object of Reality.
'At the most elementary level of the Field, we observe the dominance of Uncertainty'—the chaos of Elementary Events, of the Elementary Action, the quantum turbulent foam. The evolution of the dynamics of each point event in Elementary Field can be represented as a stochastic process, in which every point manifests full stochastic independence from the evolution of all other points. Indeterminism is inherent to the nature of the most basic level of Reality.
If we shift to a wider scale, to an Elementary Field region, a Space-time domain whose organization represents a Structure of Information—i.e., a Particle—where the evolution of the dynamics of each point event is correlated in some form to the evolution of other points within that specific domain (correlation), we encounter a peculiar form of Causality. This is the form that characterizes the quantum world, where causal links between Events can be expressed only in a probabilistic form. The correlation among the Events (a quantum Process) that contribute to the Existence of that Structure can be described statistically—as distributions of probability regarding intensity, direction, vorticity, and orientation of the vorticity (the Modes / Components of the Elementary Action) of the tiny fluctuations of the Field around Planck scale: the Elementary Events.
Probability is not a matter of incomplete knowledge, nor is it due to the existence of unknown hidden variables. Causality in the quantum world can only be expressed probabilistically because chaos, randomness, uncertainty—is so widely present at this elementary level of Reality. The Structures that organize the Field arise from the correlations among an immense quantity of ever-changing tiny Events. Nature, at this causally formative level, is inherently probabilistic, and everything can only be described in statistical terms.
In large aggregates of quantum objects—such as atoms, molecules, and small bodies—determination, certainty, necessity begin to emerge, albeit at an embryonic stage. Certainty/necessity manifests fully at more complex levels of Reality—levels where the objects of ordinary life interact with one another, following the laws of classical and relativistic dynamics. This includes cosmological bodies, which encompass a wide range of ordinary Phenomena. However, if we examine the class of more extreme Phenomena—i.e., the quantum dynamics associated with layers of Reality involving interactions among macroscopic, complex aggregates of quantum structures (neutron stars, quark plasma stars, black holes, GRBs, or intense radiation emissions such as those produced by pulsars, supermassive black holes, quasars)—then indeterminacy and probabilistic causality reassert themselves.
Finally, where inorganic matter evolves into organic molecules that sustain life, a new kind of Causality emerges. Where organic structures evolve under the selective pressure of embryonic biological evolution—forming increasingly complex living organisms—we encounter a more complex form of Causality. We call this form Finality. It emerges where certainty and necessity reach their maturity and are exalted, coevolving with the development of increasingly complex living forms.
Living beings, in their incessant exploration of the causal landscapes of Reality—searching for nourishment and improved physical and social conditions—engage in continuous efforts to adapt and ecologically fit within the co-evolutionary Processes that bind life to its environments. Through this, they develop increasingly complex behaviors and strategies that evolve within the causal dimension toward intention and finality. It is the emergence of purpose, sense, meaning.
This is analogous, in the complex levels of Reality we call Metareality, the Cognitive Reality, to the difference between spatial directions at the more elementary levels of Physical Reality—or to the different orientations of Spin in particle physics—or to the distinction between past and future in the temporal dimension, where time symmetry breaks, giving rise to the arrow of time.
Links to the tables of contents of TFNR Paper
