Relativity With Process-Instantiated Time and Relational Space

Relativity with Process-Instantiated Time and Relational Space

Relativity theory is empirically sound, so any adjustment must preserve its predictions while correcting its ontology. The goal is to reformulate the ontology of spacetime without breaking the mathematics, ensuring that both time and space are understood as relational rather than absolute.

1. Keep the Mathematics, Change the Interpretation

Relativity treats spacetime as a 4D structure where distances and durations are measured using the metric tensor. However, nothing in the mathematics requires spacetime to be fundamental. Instead of assuming spacetime exists independently, we propose:

• Time is instantiated by process relations rather than an absolute temporal fabric.

• Space is relational, not a background structure that deforms.

• Spacetime curvature reflects changes in the conditions under which processes instantiate both time and spatial intervals.

👉 Key Reframe: The metric structure describes process relations rather than an independent spacetime manifold.

2. Reframing Time Dilation and Length Contraction

In relativity, time dilation and length contraction depend on an observer’s velocity or gravitational field. However, in this model:

✔ New Interpretation:

• A moving clock ticks slower not because time itself slows but because the process of measuring time unfolds differently relative to the gravitational field or motion.

• Length contraction occurs because the process of measuring space is altered by its relation to motion, rather than space itself changing.

👉 Key Reframe: What relativity calls "spacetime distortions" are actually relational constraints on process instantiation.

3. Gravity as a Constraint on Process Relations

In general relativity, mass-energy curves spacetime, affecting the passage of time and spatial measurements. In a process-relational model:

✔ New Interpretation:

• Gravity does not "bend spacetime" but modifies the conditions under which processes instantiate both time and spatial intervals.

• Spacetime curvature is better understood as a shift in process constraints rather than a deformation of an underlying fabric.

👉 Key Reframe: Geodesics describe changes in process instantiation conditions rather than distortions in a background spacetime.

4. Rethinking the Block Universe

The block universe interpretation suggests that past, present, and future all exist equally. However, under the process-instantiated model:

✔ New Interpretation:

• The past consists of instantiated processes that are no longer active.

• The present consists of actively instantiated processes.

• The future is potential, not yet instantiated.

👉 Key Reframe: The block universe is a map of possible process relations, not a fixed 4D structure.

5. How This Changes the Interpretation of Space

A crucial distinction that ties everything together: relativity describes the extent of space intervals, not a physical space that bends. The geodesic is curved, but this does not imply space itself is a fabric that deforms. Instead:

✔ New Interpretation:

• Space is the relation between instantiated processes, not a separate medium.

• What relativity calls "spacetime curvature" is just the way these relations change relative to a centre of mass.

• Mass modifies the conditions under which spatial intervals are instantiated, rather than curving space itself.

👉 Key Reframe: Spacetime is a relational process structure, not an independent entity.

6. Revisiting Length Contraction and Geodesics

✔ New Interpretation:

• Length contraction results from changes in the relational constraints of measuring space, not from an absolute contraction of space itself.

• Geodesics describe how the constraints on process relations change due to mass, rather than indicating a curvature of an independent spacetime fabric.

👉 Final Thought:

This reformulation preserves the empirical successes of relativity while eliminating its dependency on an absolute spacetime fabric. Instead, both time and space emerge from the relational structure of process instantiation.