TFNR - The Principle of Uncertainty
The Principle of Uncertainty represents the specification of the Principle of Variation at the most elementary Level of Physical Reality.
The Principle of Variation
This principle states that everything that exists is in incessant mutation, variation—or better, all that exists "is" incessant variation.
We call these variations Events, the true "substance" of which Reality is made. The whole Reality is in continuous mutation, from the most elementary levels to the most complex ones. The States/dynamic conditions of the Entities vary incessantly, and through their variation — produced by the internal interactions between their components (Agents / Forces and Acted / Fields) — they incessantly generate Events, Action.
The term "state" is inadequate to represent this ontological dynamism.We should instead the term "dynamic condition", or simply "condition", which better captures this fundamental characteristic of Nature — fundamental because it constitutes its foundation, expression, and manifestation at all Levels, Scales and Aspects of Reality.
Relations, which link Events together, giving form to Action and shaping Information, are themselves subject to incessant variation.
Processes, which describe the dynamics of Creation and Evolution of any Structure of Information, any Form, and Reality as a whole, are the essence of this endless mutation, manifesting in every aspect and at every Level of Reality.
Everything is the product of an incessant Process of Formation, where variation is the fundament, the true core of the continuous Creation and Evolution of the Universe. Only variations — mutations of Entities (Sources, the Force/Field unitarian pairs) — thus only Events and Action, exist.
We can say that Entities exist because they produce Events, Action, and thus Existence.
The general Principle of Variation is the foundation of all derived principles of variation operating at the various Levels of Reality. It is the primary and fundamental expression of Variationality, one of the two manifestations of the Agency of the Source.
At the level of the Elementary Field the Principle of Uncertainty operates.
At the level of Physical Structures of Information the principle of organization of Information applies.
At the biological level, this principle governs mutations in genetic information.
At the cognitive level, it manifests in perception, cognition, and the formation of meaning.
The Principle of Uncertainty
In conventional physics, specifically in quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle sets a fundamental limit to the accuracy with which the values of certain pairs of physical quantities of a particle (complementary or canonically conjugate variables), such as position x and momentum p, can be predicted from initial conditions. It implies that "it is not possible to predict the value of a quantity with arbitrary certainty", even if all initial conditions are specified.
This principle represents the tombstone of the exclusively deterministic and reductionist view of Nature — not of determinism itself, which remains a valid approximation at medium and large scales, but of determinism as an absolute metaphysical doctrine.
The uncertainty principle must not be confused with the observer effect: the former is intrinsic to Reality, the latter is a disturbance introduced by measurement.
In this model, the Principle of Uncertainty describes the creation of perturbations, of micro‑gradients, in the pre‑temporal distributions of sub‑elementary pre‑spatial fluctuations (tau‑distributions of sigma‑fluctuations, or tau‑distributions of Elementary Events). These micro‑gradients, through their inhomogeneities, compose Elementary Action, the most basic form of Existence — the substrate of everything, the fundamental "substance" of Reality. This is the essence of the incessant sub-Process of Creation of Existence.
Here, indeterminacy goes beyond the impossibility of simultaneously measuring two conjugate Properties with arbitrary precision. Here, indeterminacy is ontological.
The internal interaction between Force and Field — the Action of the Force upon the Field — incessantly produces sub‑elementary pre‑spatial fluctuations which, as seen earlier, take on pre‑temporal distributions linked to the intensity of the Force and to the resistances of the Field.
The pre‑spatial and pre‑temporal aspects of this sub‑elementary dynamism must be regarded as two fundamental "conjugate" Properties of Reality at its most elementary level, where the product of their uncertainties is always greater than or equal to a minimum value.
Thus, uncertainty manifests itself at the very basis of the sub‑Process of Creation that incessantly originates and drives the Formation of Reality, where Force and Field can be seen as conjugate sub-Entities, pair of aspects of the same unique Source.
Uncertainty is ontological, not phenomenological or epistemic. It does not arise from a limitation of knowledge or from flaws in our instruments. It is intrinsic to the way Reality generates itself, because it:
- emerges from the primordial interaction between Force and Field
- is inscribed in the pre‑spatial and pre‑temporal dynamism
- is a constitutive part of the sub‑Process of creation
- manifests as a "conjugate" relation between pre‑spatiality and pre‑temporality
Uncertainty is not a side effect: it is a structural Property and Behavior of the most elementary level of Existence.
Everything — including ourselves — exists only because the relation between the expression of the Force and the manifestation of the Field is indeterminate. Through this indeterminacy, the interaction between the Fundamental Force and the Elementary Field incessantly produces Elementary Events — minute fluctuations of the Field at the Planck scale.
Uncertainty is pervasive and ubiquitous at the most elementary Levels and Scales of Reality (from the Planck scale to the Processes of Events we call Particles and Waves, the Structures of Information, and in some form even beyond, for atoms, etc.).
In this Knowledge System, Uncertainty is primarily related to Time, and therefore to velocity. At the most fundamental Level, it is expressed as indetermination in the pre‑temporal density of Elementary Events (whose inhomogeneities lead to the Mode of Elementary Action I call Perturbation), which determines the local flow of Time and the speed of propagation of Action/Information/Causality in the Elementary Field, a variable (and therefore not constant) quantity commonly referred to as the speed of light in a vacuum.
Thus, Uncertainty is at the very foundation of the Formation of Physical Reality.
We may say that the Uncertainty Principle manifests wherever a Source produces Action, wherever a Force acts (expresses Action) upon a Field, wherever a Field manifests effects, wherever a Cause produces effects.
The Principle tells us that Action always carries a margin of indeterminacy — not only in measurement, but in its very nature.
In the terms of the Dynamics of Elementary Action, the relation that links pre‑spatial fluctuations to their pre‑temporal distributions (the coupling of pre-Space and pre-Time) is intrinsically indeterminate.
This indeterminate Action manifests in the Mode / Component that I here call Perturbation.
The Principle of Uncertainty in the Terms of the Dynamics of Elementary Action
Let's return to the core ideas.
Within the Dynamics of Elementary Action, the Principle of Uncertainty does not appear as a limitation of knowledge or as a constraint imposed by measurement, but as the primordial expression of how Reality generates itself at the most elementary level. Uncertainty is not an obstacle to understanding; it is the very mode through which Existence emerges.
At the sub‑elementary level, Reality is constituted by incessant pre‑spatial fluctuations with pre‑temporal distributions. These fluctuations do not follow deterministic trajectories; they spontaneously oscillate chaotically, stochastically, and indeterminately. This indeterminacy is not epistemic — it is ontological.
Variation is the generative root of Reality. The Principle of Variation states that everything that exists is in incessant mutation. The Principle of Uncertainty specifies how this mutation manifests at the most elementary level: as the intrinsic indeterminacy of the relation between pre‑spatial fluctuations and their pre‑temporal distributions.
In this sense:
- Variation is the universal dynamical condition
- Uncertainty is its elementary behavior
- Elementary Action is the coherent pattern that emerges from this indeterminate dynamism
Uncertainty is not "added" to Reality — it is Reality. In this model, the Elementary Field is not a passive substrate. It is a dynamic continuum, under the relentless Action of the Force, whose micro‑structure is inherently indeterminate. Every event‑point, which we can imagine within the Field, can be seen as a micro‑arena in which:
- pre‑spatial fluctuations
- with pre‑temporal distributions
- interact, interfere, and reorganize
- producing the minute inhomogeneities that constitute Elementary Action.
Uncertainty is therefore the creative substrate of Existence. It is the condition that makes Variation possible, and thus the condition that makes Action, Information, and Form possible.
The Field does not "hide" Information — it manifests with indeterminacy. Under the Action of the Force, the Field manifests indeterminacy, uncertainty.
Unlike the quantum‑mechanical formulation, where uncertainty is often interpreted as a limit to simultaneous measurement, here uncertainty is a structural Property and Behavior of the Field itself.
It arises because:
- the pre‑spatial and pre‑temporal aspects of the Field are conjugate,
- their relation is inherently indeterminate,
- and the product of their uncertainties is bounded below by a minimum value.
This is not a measurement limit. It is the ontological signature of the sub‑Process of Creation.
From indeterminacy in the dynamics of the sub-levels to Elementary Action: whenever a local configuration of the pre-temporal distributions of the pre-spatial fluctuations (Elementary Events) exhibits inhomogeneity, it manifests as Elementary Action — the minimal unit of Existence.
At the current stage of this research project, it has not yet become sufficiently clear whether indeterminacy originates from the Properties and Behaviors of the Source, from the interaction between its two aspects—which I call Force and Field—or whether it is instead the result of the complexity of the sub‑elementary dynamics incessantly generated by their internal interaction. The terms “sub‑elementary” and “complexity” seem to be in complete contrast. Yet, in the hypotheses I have formulated and attempted to describe in this work, the sub‑elementary environment appears so chaotic and turbulent that its description—if we were ever able to formalize it—would still be extremely complex, were it to be detailed point‑by‑point in the continuum. Only by moving from the level of pointwise dynamics to its statistical synthesis might things improve somewhat.
As has already been emphasized many times throughout this work, in my view Reality appears far more complex than physicists would like, even at the levels I call elementary and sub‑elementary, which I associate with layers of Reality and dimensional scales far beyond the levels and scales where what are called “elementary particles” are placed. Therefore, even in a context as hypothetical and “creative” (some might say “imaginative”) as the research I am proposing, it is truly difficult to formulate hypotheses about the true nature of the indeterminacy that I place as a foundational characteristic of the creation of Reality.
The two hypotheses I feel able to propose are sharply different, and it is unlikely that they can coexist—that they can simultaneously be the causes of the uncertainty underlying Physical Reality. The first hypothesis could be called “ontological”: the source of uncertainty might reside in the Properties and Behaviors of the Primary Source in its two aspects, active and passive, in incessant interaction. The second hypothesis could be called “phenomenological/dynamic”: uncertainty, indeterminacy might arise from the interaction of sub‑elementary dynamism, produced by the continuous interplay of an infinite number of fluctuations resonating around the Planck scale.
Here I invite the reader to reflect on phenomena we can observe in the cosmos, at dimensional scales infinitely larger—both spatially and temporally—and in the discrete. For a long time we have known that even by considering only three bodies, for example three stars, the deterministic and regular dynamics that characterize two‑body systems explode into a sea of complexity and uncertainty.
Whether the origin of the uncertainty that we hypothesize characterizes sub‑elementary dynamism lies in ontological aspects or in phenomenological/dynamic ones, the result is always that Reality emerges from chaos and evolves through an incessant interaction between new chaotic Action and pre‑existing Information, in tension toward a causal persistence that unfolds through an interplay between constructive (structuring) Processes, represented by the Organization Operator, and transformative (or destructive/de‑structuring) Processes, represented by the Transformation Operator. Subjected to selective Processes, represented by the Selection Operator, this interplay realizes the Information Cycle, the true evolutionary engine of Reality.
Elementary Action is therefore: the stabilized expression of indeterminate fluctuations, the coherent pattern emerging from Variation, the first form of structured Reality.
Indeterminacy → Variation → coherence → Action.
A sub‑elementary perspective From a deeper viewpoint, Uncertainty corresponds to:
the spontaneous reorientation of pre‑spatial fluctuations,
the shifting temporal prevalence of micro‑states,
the chaotic interplay of sub‑elementary dynamical tendencies.
These incessant micro‑variations produce the inhomogeneities — the micro‑gradients — that constitute Elementary Action. This is the most elementary form of creative dynamism: Reality generates itself through indeterminacy.
A concrete example Consider a micro‑region of the Field in which the pre‑spatial fluctuations momentarily align, producing a local gradient. This gradient:
is born from indeterminacy,
expresses Variation,
and becomes Elementary Action when it acquires coherence.
But because the underlying fluctuations remain indeterminate, the Action that emerges is never perfectly determined. It carries within itself the signature of its origin: a margin of ontological uncertainty.
This uncertainty manifests in the Mode/Component we call Perturbation.
Ontological meaning In this model, the Principle of Uncertainty expresses:
the creative nature of the Elementary Field,
the non‑deterministic origin of all Action,
the structural indeterminacy of the Force–Field relation,
the impossibility of perfectly determined trajectories at the sub‑elementary level.
Uncertainty is not a defect, not a limitation, not a veil over a hidden deterministic order. It is the generative condition of all order.
Reality exists because the relation between Force and Field is intrinsically indeterminate. Through this indeterminacy, the Field produces the Elementary Events that sustain Existence and give rise to all higher‑level structures.
In summary
- Principle of Indeterminacy as a specification of the Principle of Variation
- Core idea: every real system is subject to possible variations; it is never completely rigid. The Principle of Indeterminacy is the structured form of this variation: certain quantities cannot be simultaneously determined with infinite precision.
- We may reformulate it as follows:
- General Principle of Variation: every configuration of Reality is immersed in a space of possible variations, never reducible to a single, absolutely determined state.
- Principle of Indeterminacy (specification): in every formative Process, there exist pairs of quantities whose determination is structurally limited.
- In this model, this becomes: formation never proceeds along perfectly determined trajectories, but through "fans of possibilities" that cannot be compressed into a single path.
Links to the tables of contents of TFNR Paper
